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SHETLAND 
AND THE SHETLANDERS 

OR, 

tfLijt Nortfjent Circuit 

WITH A MAP OF THE ROUTE. 

By CATHERINE SINCLAIR, 

AUTHOR OF "modern ACCOMPLISBUENTS," " MODERN SOCIETY," "HILL ANLI VALLEY, 
" CHARLIE SEYMOUR," " HOLIDAY HOUSE," «iv. fcc. 




O Scotland ! nurse of bravest men, 
But nurse of bad men too. 
For thee the good attempt in vain, 
What villains still undo ! 

Robertson of Struan. 



-DEDICATED TO THE HIGHLAND SOCIETV. 




SECOND THOUSAND. 



EDINBURGH: 
WILLIAM WHYTE AND CO. 

BOOKSELLERS TO THE QUEEN DOWAGER ; 
LONGMAN, ORME AND CO. ; HAMILTON, ADAMS AND CO. ? DUNCAN AND 
MALCOLM; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO. ; WHITTAKER AND CO., 
LONDON; W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO., DUBLIN; WILLIAM COLLINS, 
GLASGOW; AND ROBERT CARTER, NEW YORK. 

MDCCCXL. 



f/ PRINTED BV BALFOUR AND JACK. 



PREFACE. 



The author in a previous volume ven- 
tured forward with some apprehension, but 
she has been so agreeably surprised by the 
success of her first shot, in bringing down 
a large covey of readers, that she feels en- 
couraged now to discharge a second bar- 
rel, trusting it may not be said that she 
has overshot the mark. 

The more deeply grateful the author feels 
to those who have candidly, and only too 
partially viewed her present endeavour to 
throw some additional light and interest 



iv PREFACE. 

on the localities of Scotland, the more so- 
licitous she is, not to draw too largely on 
their forbearance, or to intrude too fre- 
quently on their attention ; she now there- 
fore concludes this work, hoping that the 
very indulgent public may long continue 

" To all its faults a little blind." 



SHETLAND 
AND THE SHETLANDERS. 



DORNOCH. 



TO A SCOTCH COUSIN. 

I've often wish'd that I had clear, 
For life six hundred pounds a-year, 
A handsome house to lodge a friend, 
A river at my garden's end, 
A terrace-walk, and half a rood 
Of land, set out to plant a wood. 

Pope. 

My dear Cousin, — When students are about 
to leave Oxford, a list is given in of the books 
to which their attention has been chiefly devot- 
ed, and they are examined by a learned jury on 
the progress and depth of their attainments. 
If we were all obliged occasionally to render 



2 DORNOCH. 

up before competent examiners such an account 
of our time, it would be amusing, in most cases, 
to see the miscellaneous list of favourite au- 
thors presented ! Instead of Homer, Cicero, 
and Herodotus, how often we should find "Trol- 
lope, Dickens, and Hook," or pei-haps " Byron, 
Scott, and the Newgate Calendar," but of late 
your more abstruse studies have been seriously 
impeded by the incessant battledore and shuttle- 
cock of our correspondence, and the Post-office 
must wonder what can be going on in the 
North, seeing so constant a succession of let- 
ters pouring in upon you, their seals strained al- 
most to bursting, like the lock of a trunk on a 
journey. 

We are credibly informed, that the Empress 
Josephine wore thirty new bonnets in a month ; 
and really those who travel through the wind 
and rain of this changeable summer would re- 
quire to follow the example, or to wear theirs 
of cast-iron. Mr. M'Intosh ought to receive a 
petition from the ladies, to invent something 
becoming for us to wear during rain, as he cer- 
tainly has sacrificed the ornamental to the use- 
ful in respect to gentlemen, who are much to 



DORNOCH. 3 

be pitied for the sort of hideous domino they 
all wear in a shower, though they might be en- 
vied also for the impunity with which they can 

brave the worst now. I often think A 

would rather have a torrent of rain than other- 
wise, to prove how impregnable, amidst the 
war of elements, are his fortifications. 

We had a delightful clearing-up towards eve- 
ning for inspecting the neat little county town of 
Dornoch, where I greatly admired the magnifi- 
cent donation of a fine cathedral presented to the 
city some years ago, by the Duchess-Countess 
of Sutherland, who expended L.6000 in renew- 
ing an ancient ecclesiastical edifice which stood 
here, dedicated to St. Gilbert, a saint with 
whom I was not previously acquainted. The 
former building had been burned, along with a 
large proportion of the town, by an invading 
army, but her Grace caused the old proportions 
and very elaborate decorations to be copied 
with almost Chinese minuteness, and now it 
wants only a few centuries of antiquity to be 
quite venerable. 

After this renewal had been successfully com- 
pleted, the Duchess only once enjoyed the gra- 



4 DORNOCH. 

tification of attending public worship in that 
house of God, where she now Hes interred be- 
neath a wooden trap-door in front of the altar. 
There also sleeps the Duke her husband, to whom 
the county of Sutherland owed, and has testified, 
almost unbounded respect and gi'atitude. On 
the summit of a neighbouring hill, a pillar, sixty 
feet high, surmounted by a colossal statue, may 
be seen for thirty miles round, "known to ev'ry 
star and ev'ry wind that blows." It was raised 
by the personal labour and subscriptions of his 
own attached tenantry to the memory of this 
nobleman, originally a stranger to our heath- 
covered mountains, who became so completely 
a Scotchman by adoption, that he spent the 
whole income of his Highland estates in im- 
proving them, resided much in that remote dis- 
trict, associated cordially with his tenantry, and 
chose his Dukedom to perpetuate his connec- 
tion with this country and with the ancient 
Earldom of Sutherland, the oldest title iaBritain. 
The Duke''s death was supposed to have been 
hastened by the cold and fatigue of a steam- 
voyage to Scotland ; and the Duchess, who sur- 
yived him five years, gave directions, on her 



DORNOCH. 5 

death-bed, with singular forethought, that her 
body should be conveyed to Dornoch by sea, 
but that any of her family who were to be pre- 
sent at the funeral should avoid the danger of a 
winter voyage, and follow by land. 

Few persons have enjoyed a more remarka- 
bly prosperous life than the Duchess-Countess 
of Sutherland, gifted from her earliest youth 
with an eminent share of beauty, talents, and 
fortune, which she lived to enjoy, almost unim- 
paired, during a long course of years. 

It is well known, that when Lord Trentham was 
jilted by the beautiful but fickle Lady Caroline 
Spenser, some friend reported to him that the 
young heiress of Dunrobin had expressed aston- 
ishment how any lady could refuse one so de- 
serving of happiness. Upon hearing this, he 
instantly declared that she could more than 
compensate for his recent disappointment, — the 
result of which eclaircissement was, an alliance 
most propitious to the best interests of Scot- 
land. 

The Duchess-Countess, when about to be 
snatched from all that this world could bestow, 
testified astonishing composure while she con- 



6 DORNOCH. 

templated the immediate approach of death. 
When alhiding to the prospect of her own im- 
pending dissohition, she said, " It is quite as 
well now as afterwards ;" and when advised to 
postpone some important business, she replied, 
" There is no time for me hut the present." 

No subject excites such deep interest in every 
human breast, as to ascertain how that last 
enemy has been met by others, which must 
sooner or later conquer ourselves ! It often 
seems to me, that, during life, we are placed 
between two impenetrable curtains, the one hid- 
ing from our sight all that is past, the other all 
that is future ; but a death-bed throws both, as 
it were, aside, — the door stands a-jar leading 
into another world, — and we then see at once, 
in solemn array, all the follies of our former 
existence, and all the terrors of a future judg- 
ment, which often so fearfully awaken those ago- 
nies of conscience that beset the mind of a dy- 
ing sinner. Sir Henry Halford, who attended 
the final hours of many an eminent individual, 
has recorded his own surprise how many have 
no reluctance to die, — some from impatience of 
suffering, others from passive indifference, but 



DORNOCH. 7 

many IVoni faith in our holy religion, " Such 
men," he adds, " were not only calm and sup- 
ported, but cheerful, in the hour of death, and 
I never quitted such a sick-chamber, without a 
hope that my last end might be like theirs."" 
It is very remarkable to observe, how little our 
love of life is proportioned to the external pro- 
sperity we enjoy in it, and that whenever we 
fancy any individual having more than a com- 
mon share of happiness, he is always some one 
of whom we know nothing, or very little. You 
have heard of the poor bed-ridden old beggar, 
who clasped his hands in an agony of grief 
when told he was dying, and exclaimed, " Oh, 
this is a pleasant world !" and you have seen 
others, with scarcely a want unsupplied, who 
seemed weary of their very existence, and endur- 
ed it only from a dread of futurity. Baxter 
said, he was all his life tempted sinfully to wish 
that he had never been born ; and those who 
have attained the most that this world can 
offer, have greatest leisure to look around on 
the barrenness of the prospect, while they might 
bo apt to exclaim, like Caesar, when he gained 
his empire, " Ls this all !" A peaceful con- 



8 DORNOCH. 

science, that blessing which all might enjoy, 
who rightly seek and value it, is the only sup- 
port which will avail in the end, and some 
Christians have attained that holy faith which 
encouraged them to feel a calm serene ex- 
pectation, that when the veil was drawn back 
which hides eternity from our sight, they 
were immediately to behold the glories of 
Heaven. Yet how carefully must we dis- 
criminate between a resigned death, and a 
prepared death. Those who are most eagerly 
seeking the world's honours, pleasures, and 
applause, would scarcely be ready to acknow- 
ledge the wisdom of that last wish expressed by 
the unfortunate Princess Caroline Matilda, who 
scratched these words with a diamond on the 
window of her prison — " Oh ! make me innocent 
— be others great !" Every living person is 
born with desires which the world, and all it 
contains, never can satisfy ; and though all the 
gifts of fortune accumulated around us, were 
conspiring to hide our Maker from our thoughts, 
we could not but feel that there are higher 
pleasures, and greater gifts, than any upon 
earth, which we are created to seek, and with- 



DORNOCH. 9 

out which we can reach no happiness that 
deserves the name. It is astonishing how many 
persons never pause, in the hurry of life, to ask 
themselves in what their enjoyments consist, 
and to what they tend, — who live in mere vague 
sensations of either pleasure or pain, without 
ascertaining whether they acquire all the best 
and richest blessings which might be procured. 
If we are merely receiving change for a note, 
what a cautious examination is made whether 
the full amount be paid, and how carefully do 
we avoid being cheated of the smallest fraction, 
yet how indifferent we are whether the joys and 
hopes on which we spend our lives be genuine, 
and whether they be such as will certainly pass 
current in that future world to which we all are 
hastening. 

As riches and honours, then, neither increase 
the love of life, nor diminish the awfulness of 
death, we can scarcely form too low an estimate 
of their intrinsic worth. When rightly used, 
however, not as the end, but as the means of 
enjoyment, they add so much to the usefulness 
and the influence of those who desire to pro- 
mote the glory of God, and the good of man- 



10 DORNOCH. 

kind, that they surely become legitimate objects 
of pursuit, though Ave read that Martin Luther, 
in his last will and testament, returned special 
thanks to God that he had been born poor, and 
possessed " neither house, land, nor money to 
leave behind." 

The Cathedral of Dornoch has been built, 
unfortunately, with so loud an echo inside, that 
part of the congregation hear the sound only, 
but not the sense, of what may be said ; and 
frequently, in fine weather, Mr. Kennedy pre- 
fers preaching in the open air. Even when 
talking to each other, we seemed to hear double, 
but much might be amended by hanging up 
curtains and draperies to deaden the reverbera- 
tion. Nothing is so little understood in archi- 
tecture as the building of sacred edifices to suit 
the voice ; but it would be a useful invention if 
churches could be built so that only good ser- 
mons should be audible. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland esta- 
blished, round the whole of their vast domains, 
a line of first-rate inns, each displaying for its 
frontispiece their own crest, the cat rampant, 
certainly, next to Whittington^s, the most fortu- 



GOLSPIE. 1 1 

natc cat in the world. It was alleged formerly 
to be a curious peculiarity of this county, re- 
corded by Sir Robert Gordon, that " ther is not 
a ratt in Sutherland ; and if they doe come 
thither in shipps from other pairts, which often 
happeneth, they die presentlie, how soon they 
doe smell the aire of that cuntrey ; but there is 
great store and abundance of them in Catheynes, 
the verie nixt adjacent province." Some of 
that very peculiar " aire" should be imported 
to London for the House of Commons. One of 
the best hotels in Scotland may be found at this 
charming village of Golspie, situated close to a 
hne trouting stream, and near the noble park 
of Dunrobin, which is liberally opened for a 
public promenade. Mrs. Duncan, the landlady 
here, is sister to two clergymen, and a most 
pious, excellent person herself, moderate in her 
charges, and so cordial in her reception of 
guests, that it seems like visiting some kind old 
aunt or grandmother to arrive at the door. 
She hurried up to us immediately with a most 
liberal presentation of wine and shortbread, 
that we might be " eating while we ordered 
dinner !" Our hostess spoke with tears of the 



12 GOLSPIE. 

late Duchess, who often stopped her carriage 
when passing the inn, to ascertain what travellers 
had lately been there ; and the good landlady- 
is gifted with the faculty most useful in her 
line, in which none but the Royal Family could 
excel her, of never forgetting any person. Mrs. 
Duncan had been completely perplexed by one 
guest, however, last time I was here, who arrived 
at Golspie in the mail, intending to pass on, but 
attracted by the splendid scenery and excellent 
fare, he ordered his baggage to be dismounted, 
and declared his intention to remain there all 
night. Day after day passed on, week after 
week elapsed, and still the gentleman occupied 
her best parlour, and lingered on, entranced by 
new beauties in the landscape, till the summer 
had passed entirely away. No name appeared 
on his portmanteau, and he neither received 
letters, nor cultivated acquaintances ! The 
whole inn got into an uproar of curiosity about 
this interesting incognito ! According to all 
the rules of romance, he ought to have been 
handsome, but conceive my disappointment at 
seeing a middle-aged, respectable looking man, 
in a brown bob-wig ! Even Mrs. Duncan 



DUNROBIN CASTLE. 13 

seemed quite mortified, that he was neither a 
disguised Prince, nor a swindler, all the silver 
spoons remained in their places, and at last he 
paid his bill in quite a matter-of-fact way, put 
his trunk on the mail again, and exit on the top 
of the coach ! 

Mrs. Duncan*'s reminiscences of former guests 
are more disinterested than those of your old 
landlady at Brighton, who estimated travellers 
by the length of bill they incurred, saying, " He 
was an excellent man, — always posted with four 
horses, ordered his bottle of sherry for dinner, 
and seldom went to bed without a hot supper 
at night !" 

I never felt a sensation so like being in a bal- 
loon as when gazing from the drawing-room win- 
dow of Dunrobin Castle, perched like an eagle''s 
aerie on the summit of a lofty rock, and looking 
down on the waving tops of the trees, the ocean 
furrowed with streaks of foam, and the far dis- 
tant prospect of Tarbetness, with its beacon- 
light 

" Streaming comfort o'er the troubl'd deep. " 

A long line of points and pinnacles terminates at 



14 



DUNROBIN CASTLE. 



Trouphead, and if you can look'on the whole view 
without an ecstacy of admiration, shut your eyes 
on nature for ever after, as you are unworthy 
to behold her. The park, though not highly 
dressed or ornamented, has the beauty of great 
extent, and is abundantly wooded to the edge 
of the wide and intensely blue ocean. Every 
tree so exposed to the wild northern blast must 
have a precarious existence, and those planted 
nearest the ocean generally perish on a forlorn 
hope; but no species can brave the sea-breeze 
half so hardily as the Huntingdon willow, which 
has outgrown all its cotemporaries at least 
twelve feet in height, and is covered with abun- 
dant foliage, though all shaped like flags, with a 
bare pole next the sea, and the long branches 
fluttering and streaming towards the land. 

The enormously fat housekeeper, well-known 
at Dunrobin, was absent to-day, but we found 
a thinner one, who answered our purpose equal- 
ly well in displaying the house, which is con- 
sidered to be the oldest inhabited residence in 
Britain. Do you remember the conundrum with 
which a friend of ours once astonished the state- 
ly and dignified Duchess-Countess of Sutherland, 



DUNROBIN CASTLE. U) 

" Why is the proprietor of this place, like a 
thief on the gallows? Because he has Done- 
rohhing r The date is 1100, and the name is 
of Gaelic derivation, signifying " the hill of Ro- 
bert,*" after Robert Earl of Sutherland, who built 
it. In the court of this castle is one of the 
deepest draw wells in Scotland, but we must 
hope that truth does not lie at the bottom of it. 
This remote old castle used to be filled, not 
many years ago, with company as distinguished 
for rank and consequence as the guests at Wind- 
sor Palace. The first society in England was 
attracted by the Duchess, who lived there like 
a feudal Princess, entertaining often thirty 
guests at dinner, and lodging sixty servants in 
the house. Since her lamented decease, a pall of 
mourning is spread over the whole county, and 
this venerable castle seemed to me now like an old 
friend in adversity, as I wandered through its 
desolate halls, remembering the last time I dined 
here, when " the free and independent electors 
of Sutherlandshire" were entertained at table, 
and her Grace"'s two pipers effectually drowned 
all political discussions, by performing pibrochs 
alternately, equipped, the one in the Sutherland 



16 DUNROBIN CASTLE. 

tartan, the other in that of Lord Reay's country, 
which her Grace had recently added to her vast 
possessions. Even many of the old ancestors are 
vanished from Dunrobin, having gone to London 
to be refreshed and beautified, though copies of 
several still decorate the ste\vard\s room; and 
I could not but fancy, in looking at the Duchess- 
Countess'' mother, and her aunt, the good Lady 
Glenorchy, that, hanging where they do, they 
must lendtheircountenance occasionally to scenes 
and conversations rather unsuitable to their dig- 
nity. My grandmother, Lady Janet Suther- 
land'^s portrait appears there in the character of 
a little smiling old-fashioned infant, certainly ra- 
ther formal, with a cherry in her hand, looking 
very unlike the venerable character she after- 
wards became, when, such was the reverence felt 
for her in Caithness, that a clergyman hearing 
she was to preside at an Edinburgh assembly, 
directed his letter to her as " Moderator of the 
General Assembly, Edinburgh !" Her nephew, 
the last Earl of Sutherland's likeness, in full 
Highland garb, is to be seen on the staircase. 
Judging from that, and the other portraits of 
him in various splendid costumes, which de- 



/ 



DUNROBIN CASTLE. 17 

corate different apartments, he must have had 
a very interesting appearance, and his Countess 
has so animated and speaking an expression, 
that her mere picture enlivens the room, and 
she must have been a delightful companion. She 
and her husband having both died young, with- 
in sixteen days of each other, were buried in 
one grave at Holyrood Chapel, and the Duchess- 
Countess raised a monument to the memory of 
her parents in Dornoch Cathedral. It consists 
of two marble pillars, each surmounted by an 
urn, and crowned with a coronet. This inscrip- 
tion is carved underneath — " They were love- 
ly and pleasant in their lives, and in their death 
they were not divided." 

A dismal likeness is here, representing the 
Duke of Richmond, who never laid aside his 
mourning after the execution of Charles I.; and 
we admired an interesting picture of Lady Glen- 
orchy in her childhood, teaching music to an 
orphan girl whom she educated; an early indi- 
cation of that active benevolent usefulness, for 
which, in more essential things, she became af- 
terwards so distinguished. 



18 DUNROBIN CASTLE. 

The Marquis of Hastings, and a gay party 
of visitors at Dunrobin, once secured the whole 
mail at Golspie, and wheeled themselves round 
to Thurso, where they hired post horses to 
John O' Groafs house, taking refreshments 
along with them — a ruin is, of course, no- 
thing without a sandwich — and were back next 
night, making a circuit of 120 miles. Most 
travellers must be grievously disappointed in 
the far-famed John O^Groafs house, of which 
not a fragment remains. The downs in that 
place, however, are the most vividly and intense- 
ly green you ever saw, and the clear white waves 
break along a beach composed, for many miles' 
extent, of shells ground to powder ; 

all beside is pebbly length of shore, 



And far as eye can reach, it can discern no more. 

During our progress along forty miles from 
Dunrobin to Wick, we drove so close to the 
sea, that but for the height of the hills, we 
might have kept one wheel in the water all the 
way, and the journey was like a voyage, without 
the discomfort or danger. The distant sea 



HELMSDALE. 19 

irulls looked like a fiidit of butterflies, and the 
glittering foam was blown in feathers along the 
ocean, " a moment white, then gone for ever !" 
Many parts of this coast are bold and fine, 
though the bleak and barren prevails elsewhere, 
and several of the fields are so covered with 
large rocks, some flat and others upright, that 
the appearance was like that of a church-yard. 
One proprietor, to consume the superfluous 
stones, has built little towers, resembling chess- 
men, at the corners of several fields ; but if the 
whole had been gathered up, they would make 
a perfect pyramid of Egypt. 

The flourishing little sea-port of Helmsdale, 
which now sends out a fleet of several hundred 
herring boats,' is inhabited by ci-devant cottagers 
from the rural parts of Sutherlandshire, where 
forty miles of country, once their home, looks 
now as if a victorious enemy had laid it waste ; 
every little hamlet in ruins, though the scorched 
and blackened walls yet remain, the church 
where once a numerous congregation assembled, 
now so nearly empty, that the parish clergyman 
might address his clerk as Dean Swift did 
'' dearly beloved Roger !" and the untenanted 



20 HELMSDALE CASTLE. 

gardens, still partly enclosed, and more brightly 
green than the surrounding common, 



where once the garden smiled, 



And still where many a garden flower grows wild. 

The villagers long resented this arbitrary sub- 
stitution of sheep, while tliey were themselves 
driven in flocks to the coast, and when any of 
the Sutherland family appeared in that neigh- 
bourhood for some time afterwards, they were 
followed by crowds angrily imitating the bleat- 
ing of sheep ; but if the end could sanctify the 
means, that measure has turned out well, as the 
people, formerly steeped in poverty, and sunk in 
the desponding indolence consequent on hopeless 
penury, are now become industrious, cheerful, 
and prosperous. We saw the Castle of Helms- 
dale, looking like the ruins of an old band-box. 
Once upon a time, however, it had inhabitants, 
when an atrocious murder was committed there 
by Isabella Sinclair, who poisoned the Earl and 
Countess of Sutherland, and was condemned to 
death for the crime in Edinburgh, but made away 
with herself on the day of her execution, curs- 
ing her cousin, George Earl of Caithness, whom 



ORD OF CAITHNESS. 21 

she accused of having instigated the crime, that 
her own son might succeed to the title, a pro- 
mising youth, who, unfortunately for himself, 
brought a strange retribution on his ambitious 
mother, as he drank the poisoned cup she had 
prepared for Lord Sutherland's only son, and 
immediately expired. 

The Ord of Caithness was formerly pre-emi- 
nent for being the most dangerous bit of road in 
Scotland. Mr. Telford tamed it down, however, 
into such perfect safety and insignificance, that 
modern travellers can scarcely credit the diffi- 
culty and hazard with which ten years ago it 
was crossed, unless they are shown the old track, 
an almost perpendicular line of loose stones at 
the edge of an airy precipice. On first behold- 
ing this mountainous road since its metamor- 
phosis, I felt somewhat like the fairy whose tent 
was turned into a thimble ! During the last 
century, whenever the late Earl of Caithness, 
my grandmother Lady Janet Sinclair, or any of 
the chief landed proprietors, entered that county, 
a troop of their tenants assembled on the border 
of Sutherland, and drew the carriage them- 
selves over the hill, a distance of two miles, that 



22 ORD OF CAITHNESS. 

nothing might be trusted in such a scene to the 
discretion of quadrupeds. A pretty consider- 
ably narrow, perpendicular road skirted along 
the very edge of a precipice rising twelve 
hundred feet abruptly out of the ocean, without 
the smallest hint of a parapet, and many travel- 
lers, seeing this formidable obstacle, turned 
their horses' heads without proceeding to scale 
it. The accident-maker for the Dumfries Cou- 
rier should settle for life here, as there is quite 
a treasury of untold stories to be heard in every 
house, — how the mail was upset in one place, and 
at another how Lord Duffus had only time to 
spring out and save his life before his gig and horse 
went over, and never spoke more. It appears 
to me, that gigs all come to an untimely end. 
I never yet saw a newspaper, without one or 
two having run off, and if ever they are within 
reach of a precipice, they make a point of going 
over. The mail-coach now rattles down the 
whole descent of the Ord, scarcely deigning even 
to use a di'ag ! 

It is an old established superstition, that 
none of our clan may cross the Ord on a Mon- 
day, because on that day of the week, forty 



ORO OF CAITHNESS. 23 

SincUiirs, commanded by the Earl of Caithness, 
ventured over to the battle of Flodden Field, 
and not one survived except the drummer, who 
was dismissed before the battle began. The 
whole troop had dressed in green, and since 
then it is likewise considered fool-hardy in any 
one bearing the name of Sinclair to wear green. 
I question whether we are entitled even to eat 
green peas, or to drink green tea, and whenever 
a Sinclair loses his purse, it must of course have 
been of the objectionable colour. 

When my late father succeeded to his estate, 
there was not a road, nor a single cart in Caith- 
ness, and he introduced the first highway when 
only eighteen years of age. Having been taunt- 
ed with the impossibility of carrying one over 
the hill of Bencheilt, he went to the place in 
person, assembled 1260 labourers, assigned each 
a separate spot, where tools and provisions had 
already been placed, and in one single day, what 
had only been a rough horse-track in the morn- 
ing, became fit for carriages before night. Soon 
after, he suggested the plan to Lord Melville, 
of obtaining L. 50,000 as a grant by Parliament, 
from the Scotch forfeited estates, to make roads 



24 



BERRIDALE. 



and bridges throughout the ultra-northern coun- 
ties, where the drivers of cattle had to swim 
with their droves across the rivers when taking 
them to market ; and from the same fund he 
obtained L.8500 for making a harbour at 
Wick. 

A sixth part of Caithness belonged to my fa- 
ther when he came of age, and he represented 
the county during more than thirty years. No 
lover ever felt more anxious to decorate his mis- 
tress, than he did to adorn the barren wilds of 
his native district. He even persuaded himself 
it was beautiful ! As one proof of his zeal, the 
romantic entrance to Caithness is richly wood- 
ed, for he planted the hills of Berridale to their 
very summits, and sold them afterwards for 
little more than it cost to embellish them. 
Two salmon streams unite here, and flow round 
the base of these mountains, while the road 
winds circuitously down to the very bottom of a 
deep glen, where a charmingly situated Inn, 
built when the trees were planted, lies embosom- 
ed in wood. Almost overhanging this resting- 
place, but nearly two hundred feet higher up 
the hill, stands Langwell, now the residence of 



DUNBEATII CASTLE. 25 

Mr. Donald Home. When the late proprietor, 
after taking possession of his recently purchased 
estate, first appeared at church, the parish 
clergyman, being gratefully attached to my fa- 
ther, looked full in the face of his new auditor, 
and gave out for his text the fifth verse of the 
seventy-fifth psalm, " Lift not up your Horn on 
high."" The clergy in primitive times used to 
delight in selecting eccentric texts. One of 
Bishop Buirs most interesting sermons is on 
that verse of St. Paul's, " The cloak which I 
left at Troas, bring with thee, and also the 
books, but especially the parchments." A very 
admirable one was preached once against luke- 
warmness, on the text, " Ephraim is a cake un- 
turned f and a clergyman not long since an- 
nounced for his subject, " What will this bab- 
bler say r' 

Some miles north of Berridale, stands the 
bluff old Castle of Dunbeath, which in old times 
was garrisoned by the Marquis of Montrose 
shortly before his death. It juts out into the 
ocean, with the sea blast whistling through its 
walls, and the bold dashing waves roaring and 
sparkling at its foot. A spurious attempt at 



26 NOTTINGHAM HOUSE. 

trees in front, scorched with cold till they are 
perfectly threadbare, actually made me laugh. 
Two rows had started in a straight line from 
the road to the house, but about half way they 
suddenly came to an untimely end. The tall, 
bare, skeleton trunks, and the perpendicular 
branches, were huddled all together, with a thin 
canopy of foliage near the top, as if they were 
carrying a tray of leaves on their heads. The 
effect was more comical than you can fancy. 

The next place we passed was Nottingham 
House, a large bleak lonely mansion, belonging 
to the male representative of the Sutherland 
family, who would have inherited that ancient 
earldom, for which his predecessors had a law- 
suit, endeavouring to prove that the Earls of 
Sutherland for three centuries had all been 
usurpers, but like most old Scotch titles, this 
was impartially settled in the female line. Not- 
tingham House used formerly to be in sad dis- 
repair, and the late proprietor was overheard 
once, when a visitor unexpectedly arrived, call- 
ing loudly to his servant, " Bring me a fork to 
open the drawing-room door !" Many of the 
windows were at that time built up, and a 



WICK. 27 

clergyman who slept there one night previous to 
preaching in the parish church, got up next 
morning and opened his shutters, but seeing no 
light, he retired to bed, wondering much what 
had disturbed him so early. Unable to sleep, 
he watched impatiently for the first glimpse of 
dawn, thinking that certainly a sleepless night 
was a very tedious aifair, when at length the 
clerk rushed into his room, saying that the 
whole congregation were assembled in their 
pews, and had waited impatiently for some 
time ! 

Wick is a sea-port, so fragrant with fish, that 
when we entered 1 thought of your brother's 
voyage in a herring smack, when the seats were 
barrels of herrings, and the staircase from the 
cabin formed by piles of casks. One year, many 
fields in Caithness were manured with herrings ; 
but none of the proprietors find the perfume so 
oppressive as strangers do, because these fish- 
eries are the chief sources of their wealth, only 
reaped within the last half century, when my 
father advanced money himself, that the inha- 
bitants might try their first experiment of fish- 



28 WICK. 

ing on those coasts, and now 14,000 Caithness 
fishermen are in constant employment gathering 
in their annual harvest of herrings. My very 
letter will smell of fish, if I say another syllable 
about it, but the flavour cannot be very injuri- 
ous to health, as I have this evening drunk tea 
with an interesting old lady who has lived here 
ninety-nine years. During that period she has 
been a warm-hearted friend to three generations 
of our family in succession, so you may suppose 
it was with no ordinary feelings that I went to 
the house. Her first reception of me was in 
the true Highland fashion, saying, with an ex- 
pression of touching retrospection, " Your fa- 
ther"'s daughter is welcome;" and after ascer- 
taining that all our family were well, she added 
in a tone of earnest feeling, " They cannot be 
better than I wish them." There was some- 
thing almost Ossianic in the tone of her language; 
and it is pleasing to see not only the faculties, 
but also the affections, perfectly fresh and per- 
fectly wide awake at so advanced a period of 
life. It had all the solemnity of a voice from 
the dead, when she spoke of former days, and 



WICK. 29 

of friends long departed, whose very existence 
seemed to me a tale of other times. 

When the Romans cursed an enemy, it was 
in these words, " May you survive all your friends 
and relations." How often I have thought it 
would be the saddest feeling of extreme old age, 
to see " friend after friend depart,'' — the lights 
one by one extinguished which enlivened our 
early days, and to think that those connections 
on whose kindness we are finally cast will seem 
cheerless and remote, if none remain who can 
remember that we were ever young, happy, and 
beloved, and who have known nothing of us but 
the dark evening of a life so full of sorrows and 
infirmities, that it would scarcely seem a duty 
to weep over its close ! The three messengers 
of death are accident, sickness, and old age, all 
unwelcome when they come, but the last is 
that which requires most sympathy, and too 
often excites the least, for the reverence paid 
in ancient times to venerable years is not 
now universal, having given place in a lamenta- 
ble degree to indifference, and even to ridicule, 
though in many instances, a satirical feeling is 



30 WICK. 

excited, not without justice, against those who 
will not grow old with a good grace, and who 
never ask themselves, in the language of Scrip- 
ture, " How old art thou?" When I see aged 
persons vainly struggling to keep up the sem- 
blance of youth, that text sometimes occurs to 
my recollection, " Grey hairs are here and there 
upon him, and he knoweth it not." The cele- 
brated wit. Lord Norbury, determined to have 
his laugh to the last, laid a bet of L.lOO with 
his cotemporary, the late Marquis of Drogheda, 
which would survive. Both were taken ill at 
once, and Lord Norbury, who lingered longest, 
gained the money, but remarked, that he thought 
it would have turned out " a dead heat." The 
average of human existence is said to be nearly 
double in Britain what it is in Naples ! Old 
Mrs. Butler, whom you remember in Edinburgh 
walking often more than a mile to see me, was 
ascertained to be one hundred and ten when she 
died, but life at such an extreme age is like a 
flower without root, the first blast lays it low ; 
and in taking leave of our aged and respected 
friend at Wick, I felt a solemnizing conscious- 



WICK. 31 

ness that both shall pass into another, and I 
trust a better world, before we meet again. 

There everlasting spring abides, 
And never withering flow'rs ; 
Death like a narrow sea divides 
This heav'nly land from ours. 



32 



WICK. 



I like the weatber when it's not too cold, 
That is, I like three months in all the year. 

Byron. 



My dear Cousin, — We may say here, like 
Lord Dudley, that the summer has set in with 
its usual severity ! July and August have for- 
gotten themselves completely, and turned a cold 
shoulder to all their old friends and admirers. 
In this country the leaves have at all times a 
short reign, but this year they were frightened 
to death by a frost, soon after they appeared, 
looking scorched and lifeless now, especially the 
fir tribe, which put up with cold blasts worse 
than many that seem less hardy. 

If travellers would only condescend to forget 



CASTLE GIRNIGO. 33 

that there are such things as trees in the world, 
th<3y could not but admire the bold coast scenery 
of Caithness, and we walked three miles from 
Wick this morning in search of two very strange 
and tottering old sea-beaten ruins, which have 
bid defiance to the waves for many centuries. 
The Castles of Sinclair and Girnigo are but little 
known, though well worth making acquaintance 
with, being so remote and so retired from pub- 
lic life, that few tourists are aware of their merit. 
These time-worn remnants stand side by side, 
and the oldest wears well, while the other is a 
mere wreck, yet the entire mass is magnificent, 
towering out of the broad ocean in a noble and 
commanding style. The situation is very dig- 
nified and impressive. A natural wall of per- 
pendicular rock, about sixty feet high, runs 
out like a long pier into the ocean, surround- 
ed on three sides by a boiling foam of waves, 
struggling forward, and lashing themselves in 
ceaseless fury at its base. On the utmost 
verge of this point, and scarcely to be dis- 
tinguished from the natural masonry of rock, 
stands the massy wall of Castle Girnigo, still 
about five stories high, and looking almost ha- 



34 CASTLE SINCLAIR. 

bitable, the windows, doors, and loop-holes, be- 
ing faced with red free-stone, conspicuously seen 
amidst the surrounding mass of sea-green walls. 
A curious subterranean staircase descends far 
beneath the level of the tide, and a narrow con- 
cealed passage under ground leads to a creek 
where the waves beat in with angry vehemence, 
and where a boat was formerly hid, in which 
the family of Lord Caithness escaped when the 
fortress was besieged and about to be taken. 

A tall tottering fragment of Castle Sinclair 
rears its venerable head on high, looking nearly 
as unsafe as the pillars of brick built by chil- 
dren, which cannot be balanced above five mi- 
nutes, and yet not a stone has fallen within the 
memory of the oldest man in the parish. There 
is an "oldest man" in all parishes, who remembers 
every thing, and vouches for all remarkable facts. 

The family motto of Lord Caithness is, " Com- 
mit thy work to God." It seems rather inap- 
propriate to an earl of ancient times, known as 
" George the wicked," who became chancellor of 
Scotland, and lived a great part of his long and 
atrocious life within the walls of Girnigo Castle, 
A\ here we saw the room in which his second son, 



WICK. 35 

William Sinclair, was slain by his own eldest 
brother John, who bruised him to death with 
his fetters during his imprisonment there, and 
where the earl cruelly starved to death his 
eldest son. He himself died at Edinburgh, 
and his body lies interred at Roslin Chapel ; but 
he desired that his heart — such as it was — 
should be buried in a handsome cemetery, raised 
in honour of his murdered son, and which still 
remains, forming an ornament to the city of 
Wick, where so much hospitality now prevails, 
that we saw little danger of any one being 
starved in the present day. Caithness piques 
itself on giving the best breakfasts in Scotland, 
and I wish you could have accompanied us to 
the manse this morning, where every guest 
would require half-a-dozen appetites to achieve 
what his knife and fork are expected to do. 
The lady who said her appetite required to be 
amused, should have taken her place here, sur- 
rounded by all the dishes peculiar to a High- 
land dejeunt. You would be much surprised at 
seeing the Caithness geese, which are smoked 
and salted like Westphalia hams, and are said 
to sharpen the appetite amazingly, though a 



36 WICK. 

gentleman once complained that he did not find 
it so, having picked the bones of one, without 
feeling a whit more hungry ! 

In the parish of Wick may be seen the truth 
of Dr. Chalmers''s remark, that " a house-going 
minister makes a church-going people.'" No- 
thing can exceed the reverence which every 
Christian here delights in testifying towards the 
zealous, able, and long- tried servant of God 
who officiates among them. It is anxiously 
hoped, that one so fitted to guide others, may 
long be spared himself; but having been lately in 
precarious health, Mr. Phin fainted twice last 
Sunday in the pulpit. The use of restoratives 
revived him the first time, and he resumed the 
service, but a few minutes afterwards, he had a 
more prolonged attack, which obliged him to 
desist, and the congregation dispersed, many of 
them in tears. Next morning the manse gate 
was besieged by parishioners, eagerly inquiring 
how he had passed the night, and several old 
women forced their way into the house, with 
various infallible nostrums to cure his disorder, 
but unanimous in only one point, which was, in 
earnestly admonishing him to " take nothing 



WICK. 37 

the doctor ordered !"''' Here the common people 
have a superstitious horror of the faculty, bein^ 
perfectly convinced, that, like rat-catchers, they 
bring the evil they profess to cure ; and three 
years ago, an Edinburgh apothecary narrowly 
escaped with his life, being suspected of import- 
ing the cholera to Wick in his pill-box. 

From the manse windows, Mr. Phin pointed 
out to me a newly erected " Popish chapel," 
which he looked at as if it were a mine dug un- 
der the town, and ready to explode. If the 
rapid extension of E,oman Catholic influence 
were regarded with the same salutary horror in 
quarters where it may yet prove more danger- 
ous, we might indeed rejoice, for it is an alarm- 
ing circumstance to a Protestant nation, if any- 
thing can thoroughly alarm us, that such edifices 
are arising in every part of Scotland, though 
fortunately they are as yet only like traps set 
to catch a congregation, — the casket without 

Since writing the above, this exemplary minister of Christ 
has been called into the presence of that almighty Being, in a 
better world, whom he so faithfully served upon earth. His 
last hours were full of hope, peace, and Christian resignation ; 
and amidst the heartfelt grief of his numerous congregation, it 
may still be said, '• He being dead, yet speakelh." 



38 WICK. 



^ 



the jewels, — not being yet, in most instances, 
supplied with audiences. This very small cha- 
pellette at Wick is only attended by a few sol- 
diers'" wives from Ireland, and the funds for 
raising it were in no degree contributed by 
Caithness. It has been conjectured that the 
Papists wished to boast of their dominion reach- 
ing to every extremity of Britain ; but I hope 
we shall never come quite to Archbishop Magee's 
antithesis about the Irish, when he offended all 
parties by saying, that they have " a church 
without a religion, and a religion without a 
church !" At the ancient house of Kilravock, 
which I have already described, there is now 
to be seen a bull, signed by the Pope's own 
hand, granting plenary remission of all their 
sins, to Colonel Rose's family, and to every 
branch of his house, from the date of this docu- 
ment, to a period of which there are still about 
forty years to run ; but I am happy to under- 
stand that none of this family have yet taken 
any very extraordinary advantage of their un- 
common privileges. 

Two ladies of rank in different parts of Scot- 
land, within the last three years, have each 



STIRKOKE. 39 

built a chapel, entirely at her own expense, as 
large as the parish church. One of them, raised 
by the present Duchess of Leeds, I saw, the ar- 
chitecture of which, like that of all Popish 
buildings, is beautiful. It should be the am- 
bition of Protestants, to out-church, out-pray, 
and out-preach those zealous sectarians, for we 
are too apt to regard Roman Catholic su- 
premacy, and Roman Catholic persecutions as 
a tale of other times, totally extinct now, like 
the superstitions of ghosts and witchcraft, which 
I trust may be the case ; but one would wish 
on such a subject, as Shakespeare says, " to 
make assurance doubly sure,*" leaving those who 
advocate the worse cause. 

To prove their doctrine orthodox, 
By apostolic blows and knocks. 

If we had a horticultural show in Caithness, 
every prize ought to be gained by the gardener 
at Stirkoke, where an unusual variety of flowers 
has been enlisted into the service, and the pro- 
prietor, Mr. Home, wages a perpetual and suc- 
cessful war against the northern blasts. Rho- 
dodendrons are there in splendid flower, dwarf 
rhododendrons in a blaze of blossoms, and pan- 



40 STIRKOKE. 

sies equal to any I have seen elsewhere. The 
Russian cranberry is expected some time or 
other to produce fruit ; the camellias are doing 
their very best to live ; the fir-trees are not yet 
perfectly dead ; sixty acres of hard wood in every 
variety are very thriving ; the forest trees have 

grown so tall, that A could not touch the 

top of them with his umbrella ; and a most 
beautiful green-house is glowing with gerani- 
ums, fuschias, passion-flowers, musk-plants, and 
balsams, besides which, in the open air, we 
observed several exotics from the south, such as 
wall-flowers, honeysuckles, jessamine, &c. &c. 
In short, it is astonishing how much embellish- 
ment may be effected by perseverance and en- 
terprise, for the general aspect of Stirkoke is 
quite verdant, the house not much overtopping 
the trees, and the leaves almost as green in 
July, as we generally see them in October. In 
some places nearer the sea it was very different, 
for the unhappy looking forests resembled an 
old broom turned up, and a stranger remarked, 
there was not a tree in Caithness on which any 
one who was tired of life, could hang himself. 
In the plantations at Stirkoke, we started a 



STIRKOKE. 41 

fine covey of young pheasants, probably the 
most northern colony of these birds in the 
world. A noble looking red deer also was 
tethered in the park, looking so quiet and do- 
mestic, that it seemed curious to think what 
days of toil and sleepless nights a sportsman 
would gladly have endured, to see the mere 
tips of his horns, but there he stood safe from 
every gun, though ready to be shot at the short- 
est notice. A French cook in the Highlands 
some years ago, sent up the most magnificent 
dinner, made entirely of red-deer venison, and no 
one could have found out how nearly all the va- 
rious dishes were connected, but the second course 
must have been rather defective, consisting only 
of hartshorn jelly. The flavour is rather power- 
ful, but a Frenchman can disguise anything, or 
cook a white leather glove into a palatable mor- 
sel, never being reduced to quite such straits as 
the Scotch housekeeper you told me of, who, 
trusting to the impunity with which her un- 
gainly side-dishes usually escaped untasted from 
the dining-room, and finding herself at a loss to 
fill up one corner of the table, sent up a finely 
formed shape of porridge under a white sauce. 



42 STIRKOKE. 

Nothing makes cheerfulness flow in upon the 
spirits more certainly than travelling, — the con- 
stantly varying panorama of new ideas and new 
subjects of interest, besides a fair opportunity 
for grumbling whenever you feel in the humour, 
which, I am convinced, is a great luxury to 
some travellers, from the frequent use they 
make of it. We all wish to be either envied or 
pitied ; and at present I could make out a very 
good case either way, according to the repre- 
sentation of our pleasures or difficulties on the 
road ; but I am always for viewing the bright 
side of every thing, and never would wish to 
look at the sun as philosophers do, merely to 
discover the spots. 

Having now sent you three sheets of the best 
superfine Bath post, it is time to economize my 
stationery, and to wish you a safe journey 
through what I have already written; there- 
fore, with best wishes, adieu ; and, as the poet, 
whoever he was, very sensibly remarks, 

" An adieu should in utterance die, 
When written should faintly appear, 
Only heard in the sob of a sigh, 
Or seen in the blot of a tear. 



43 



CAITHNESS. 



To gain his purpose, he performed the part 
Of a good actor, and prepared to start. 

My dear Cousin, — Letter- writing brings forth 
the dormant ideas that would otherwise skim- 
ber in our minds, and arranges them before us, 
like nine-pins out of a box. Mine tumble out 
so miscellaneously, that they will not be very 
easily drilled into order ; but I hope you may 
be sufficiently interested to grope your way 
on with me. As Bishop Hall says, "curiosity is 
the appetite of the mind," so we shall suppose 
you are perfectly dying of it now, and require 
as much mental food as our travels can possibly 
supply. 



44 CAITHNESS. 

One of the best farmers in this county, my 
brother's tenant, Mr. Gunn, is the fifteenth in 
regular descent, from father to son, who has 
occupied the same land! He has six sons, all 
skilful agriculturists, several of whom have al- 
ready made themselves comfortably independ- 
ent, and his mode of instructing them in busi- 
ness is uncommon, as well as extremely judici- 
ous. The beautiful and romantic little farm of 
Dalmore, which he rents from Sir George, has 
been sub-let to each of his sons in succession as 
they grew up, and there they serve an appren- 
ticeship in the management of this small con- 
cern, for which their father exacts the full value. 
He annually purchases their stock, and drives 
as close a bargain with his sons as if they were 
strangers, until each is thoroughly versed in all 
the mysteries of the field and of the market- 
place. Two of these young men made six thou- 
sand pounds last year in Sutherlandshire, by 
the sale of sheep and wool ; so farmers need 
scarcely emigrate to Australia to make fortunes 
in that line : and afiluence may still be realized 
at home, by those who have prudence and in- 
dustry. It was the saying, long ago, of a per- 



CAITHNESS. 45 

son wlio knew the world better than either you 
or I, that " many succeed by talent, many by a 
miracle, but most people by beginning without 
a shilling !" 

Since we arrived in Caithness, the eldest of 
these promising young men has been suddenly cut 
off, at the early age of twenty-five, by the small- 
pox, which occasions a deep sensation of sympathy 
and sorrow throughout the whole county ; and 
many of the chief proprietors assembled at his 
funeral, as well as an immense concourse of 
people, to testify their respect and regret. 
Fifty years since the proprietors in this county 
scarcely improved an acre a-year, but now seve- 
ral East Lothian farmers have found it worth 
while to take land in this neighbourhood for 
feeding young cattle; and one of them has 
brought a sister with him to manage his house- 
hold affairs, who sets an example, that I hope 
may be followed by all the pianoforte-playing 
farmeresses in Scotland, as she personally as- 
sists in every variety of active employment suit- 
ed to her station. I was told that all the milk 
in the dairy is taken to her every morning, and 
is never seen again till she has churned it into 



46 THURSO. 

butter ; and that the profits of her poultry- 
yard, which amount in most places to consider- 
ably less than nothing, are, by her skilful man- 
agement, sufficient to pay for all the tea and 
groceries used in her brother's house. 

The drive from Wick to Thurso is about 
twenty miles long, through a highly cultivated 
country, where fields of the richest grain, and 
substantial farm-houses, ornament the scene ; 
but the less we say the better about beauty, for 
the road is as level and as treeless as your draw- 
ing-room floor. A folio page is now in exist- 
ence, attested by the clergy and gardeners in the 
county, containing an exact catalogue of all the 
trees growing in Caithness a hundred years ago, 
in which even the currant-bushes are recorded ; 
but since then, by the indefatigable exertions of 
Mr. Traill, the late Earl of Caithness, and my 
father, the woods and forests could not so easily 
give a census of their population. Some of our 
own, at a distance, look very like tattered um- 
brellas ! 

The first view of Thurso from the south, in a 
fine day, is exceedingly striking and beautiful, 
including the gigantic headlands of Orkney. The 



THURSO. 47 

"Old man of Hoy" standing a thousand feet 
above the sea ; the Pentland Frith connecting 
the Atlantic and German Oceans, and sprinkled 
with a multitude of ships ; the tall abrupt rocks 
of Holbourn Head ; the charming bay of Scrab- 
ster, considered the best harbour on this coast ; 
the river sweeping through the town ; the ele- 
gant bridge ; the new church, larger than any 
north of Inverness ; the bright yellow sands ; 
the numerous villas and farm-houses ; and 
though last, certainly not least, the ancient 
towers of Thurso Castle, built by George Earl 
of Caithness, in 1660, and belonging since 1718 
to our family, now represented by the county 
member. Sir George Sinclair. 

I was amused to hear that some English tra- 
vellers inquired once at the Thurso inn, whether 
there were many fine pictures at this castle, 
when the waiter, who had never beheld any 
others, confidently replied, that the collection 
was first-rate, very old, and well worth seeing. 
The connoisseurs hastened over accordingly, 
their heads filled with Corregios and Titians, 
when, melancholy to relate, not so much as a 
single Sir Joshua Eeynolds or Jameson reward- 



48 THURSO. 

ed their pains, but merely eight generations of 
very formal looking ancestors, appearing exact- 
ly like every other person's ancestors, the most 
remote portraits exhibiting the smallest waists 
and largest wigs, while they all became less 
exaggerated towards our own time. 

A recent addition has been made to Thurso 
Oastle, planned and executed by Burn, the 
cobbler-general of worn-out houses, by whom 
ancient edifices are mended, cleaned, dyed, and 
repaired, to look as good as new, or even bet- 
ter. When A perceived flaws in the archi- 
tecture of several old castles lately, he wished 
they were all " Burned" like ours. Certainly the 
situation here is somewhat uncommon. In for- 
mer times, showers of spray from the ocean 
used to dash up to our drawing-room window, 
when the waves, curling and grating along the 
shore, sometimes struck at the foundation with 
animated vehemence, and rebounded among the 
rocks, till at length a breakwater was raised to 
defend the wall. My grandmother Lady Janet 
used to describe, that many years ago, when 
sitting by her own fireside, a vessel was wreck- 
ed off the coast, so near the turrets, that she 



THURSO CASTLE. 49 

could hear the people's voices, yet though eveiy 
effort was used on behalf of the crew, " to yield 
them hope, whom help could never reach," not 
a life was saved from the wreck ! 

You might have imagined, that in such a po- 
sition as I have described, this house was near 
enough to the sea, but my father liked the pe- 
culiarity of being so intimate with the wild winds 
and waves, so he caused a strong pier to be 
raised between the old castle and the water, on 
which Mr. Burn has contrived securely to perch 
a terrace walk and an appendix to the building. 
I hope it may turn out as long-lived as the 
Irishman's railway, which was to last for ever, 
and might afterwards be sold for old iron. 

Several very handsome new apartments are 
here, from the windows of which I can at this mo- 
ment count a procession of twenty vessels in full 
sail, some of which come so close, they are tack- 
ing into the very room, while the stormy surge 
beats up so near to where I sit, that it seems to 
undermine the very floor. We had a dispute 
here once, whether the bright blue ocean, 
sprinkled with white sails, was not as beautiful 
an object, as a green park dotted with trees, be- 



50 THURSO CASTLE. 

sides being fully more varied, and I wish you 
were present to award us the superiority. The 
roughest and strongest tide on the Scotch coast 
is through the Pentland Frith, running at the 
rate of nine miles an hour. It is what our old 
housekeeper calls " a contramaceous and can- 
tankerous sea ;" and on the opposite coast of 
Holbourn-head and Orkney, where the time- 
worn rocks stand up as straight as an arrow, 
the waves are leaping ten or twenty feet high, 
becoming so perfectly white with foam, they 
look like apparitions starting out of the water, 
and vanishing again, while the vessels flitting 
silently and tracklessly along, like wreaths of 
mist at the horizon, are now and then lighted 
up by a brilliant gleam of sunshine shed upon 
the water, as if a path of glory were stretched 
across, which it would be a long day's journey 
to pass over. 

On the beach at Thurso may now be seen the 
hulk of a ship wrecked under our windows last 
winter, and many tragical accidents have oc- 
curred at various times to the little herring 
vessels, forty of which pass this way in the 
evening, dancing on the waves so perfectly 



THURSO CASTLE. 51 

joyous and safe looking, that last night I had 
actually the courage to wish myself on board of 
one. Nothing can be more like the life of a 
gambler than that of a fisherman. Sometimes 
they make ten pounds at a single haul, and of- 
ten not tenpence in a day. I was particularly 
sorry for one Caithness fisherman this year, who 
had caught sixty crans, each equal to a barrel 
of herrings, at a single draught, worth about 
L.30, but wishing to complete the hundred 
crans, he tried another successful pull, which 
sunk his boat, worth L.lOO, carried away his 
net, and left the unfortunate speculator with 
nothing but his life remaining. How constant- 
ly we are reminded, that " slow and sure" is 
the best rule in pursuing wealth, and that we 
crush the butterfly by snatching at it too 
eagerly. 

When the present Duke of Sutherland dined 
many years ago at Thurso Castle, our fishermen 
were eager to prove the productiveness of this 
coast ; therefore two and twenty different kinds 
of fish were placed on table at once, including 
salmon, cod, turbot, ling, tusk, haddock, and 
every thing that swims, besides an odd fish, 



52 THURSO CASTLE. 

called, from its resemblance to the feline species, 
the cat-fish, and considered a great delicacy, 
though not a very prepossessing one. The sal- 
mon-fishing of this river was then let for L.IOOO 
a-year. It is recorded in the parish books of 
Thurso, that in 1786, no less than 2560 salmon 
were taken out of the river at one sweep of the 
net ! Such is the violence of the tides at sea, 
when the billows get into a rage during stormy 
weather, that cod and ling are, by the force of the 
waves, frequently thrown alive upon the shores 
at Canisbay. 

It is pleasing, in this remote country, to see 
so universal a confidence in the safety of life and 
property ! Not a door or a window is fastened 
at night, not a shutter closed, and no means of 
defence provided, not even so much as a red hot 
poker. The old alarm-bell is speechless, and 
Oliver Twist might be thrust into the butler's 
pantry at any hour of the night or day, without 
danger or difficulty. No provision being made 
in Scotland for the maintenance and confine- 
ment of insane persons, an old woman used, 
when I was here last, to haunt this house, caus- 
ing great annoyance to its inhabitants, by con- 



THURSO CASTLE. 53 

coaling herself under the beds, or in the closets. 
A lady on one occasion, hearing the drawers in 
her dressing-room opening and shutting most 
unaccountably, as it appeared, of their own ac- 
cord, hurried in to ascertain the cause, and 
found this poor maniac nearly undressed, and 
shaking out all her gowns to select the one she 
liked best for herself. This unfortunate crea- 
ture on another occasion stole up to the top of 
a turret, where the maids were assembled, lock- 
ed up the whole establishment, and threw the 
key into Thurso river, intending to keep them 
in perpetual imprisonment ; and thus no hour of 
the night or day was secure from her incursions, 
sometimes in anger and sometimes in jest. 
These two states of mind border very closely on 
each other, in cases of derangement, of which I 
know one very curious instance. When the 
Duchess of first showed symptoms of in- 
sanity, she was sitting with our friend Lady 

at dinner ttte-a-Ute, apparently in great 

spirits and good humour, during which she oc- 
casionally made little pellets of bread, and 
fillipped them across the table at her compa- 
nion, who at length took up the jest, and did 



54 THURSO CASTLE. 

likewise, on observing which, the Duchess in- 
stantly started up with flaming eyes, seized the 
carving-knife, and hurried furiously toward her 

companion. Lady fled for her life, and 

she used to make her auditors tremble when 
describing her flight through the long narrow 

passages of Castle, and how she saw the tall 

figure of the Duchess in a white dress, striding 
along and brandishing the knife in her hands. 

Fortunately Lady reached a distant door, 

and locked herself up, but there she remained 
in a state of siege for several hours before the 
servants came to her protection. The Duchess 
remained ever afterwards in close confinement, 
but no such salutary restraint is laid on our 
visitor from Thurso, who was still alive on my 
arrival, but fortunately did not hear of our be- 
ing come in time to leave her card for us. 

In the old Castle some years ago, we had an 
aged housekeeper, who claimed the gift of se- 
cond-sight ; and when walking one evening near J 
the shore of Thurso, she suddenly gave a start- 
ling scream, and told the people near her 
that a boat had been upset on the bar of the 
river ; naming three men who were drowned. 



THURSO CASTLE. 55 

and one that she saw swimming to land. The 
friends who accompanied her perceived nothing 
of this, and laughed at her ; but next evening, 
about the same hour, the boat she had described 
actually was lost there, and all the three fisher- 
men she had named perished. How truly it 
has been remarked, that " the veil which con- 
ceals futurity was woven by the hand of mercy."" 
This old housekeeper insisted, also, for the hon- 
our of Thurso Castle, that one room was haunt- 
ed, though I never could exactly ascertain who 
had been murdered there, nor in what shape 
the apparition might be expected. She always 
gave an impressively superstitious shake of the 
head when speaking of this apartment, saying, 
that once she had attempted to pass a night 
in it, but what took place must never be told ; 
only, on that memorable occasion, it was well 
known, that, after an hour or two, she hastily 
vacated her position, and would never return 
there alone after dusk. A gentleman, hearing 
these rumours, insisted once, when visiting at 
Thurso Castle, on occupying this room, and 
came down to breakfast next morning with a 
large black patch on his forehead, gravely pro- 



56 SCRABSTER CASTLE. 

testing to the old woman, when she waylaid 
him in the passage, that the ghost had taken 
him out of bed in the middle of the night, 
and tossed him three times up to the roof of 
the room, till he was nearly killed, adding, that 
he never would sleep there again, a resolution 
very easily adhered to, as he was then leaving 
the country for good. 

This morning we walked to inspect Her Ma- 
jesty's Royal Castle of Scrabster. My father was 
the hereditary high Constable there ; but it is 
to be hoped no probability exists of a Royal visit, 
as the accommodation would be somewhat defi- 
cient, — there being excellent grazing for a single 
sheep in the only apartment of which any re- 
mains are visible, and the small fragment of 
wall looks as if it could be thrown over with 
your little finger. Here, in former times, a 
Bishop of Caithness was murdered. The peo- 
ple in those days not being allowed a veto, took 
the law into their own hands, and, with a de- 
gree of cruelty which a New Zealander would 
be ashamed of, thrust him alive into a caldron, 
and boiled him to death. It was perhaps in 
allusion to this tragical story, that, when your 



THURSO. 57 

cousin dined with the Lord High Commissioner, 
expecting to meet nobody but clergymen in 
black, and saw, instead, only officers in scarlet, 
he suddenly exclaimed, " You have boiled all 
the ministers !**' 

The new church at Thurso, the chief expense 
of building which, in a very superior style of 
architecture, was incurred by my father, is quite 
a little cathedral, being the handsomest edifice 
north of Inverness, partly formed of a very hard 
stone imported from Morayshire. In the gal- 
lery here, the congregation resembles in dress 
and appearance what you might expect to see 
at any fashionable church in London, with bon- 
nets a Id Carsan, scarcely a week old, from 
Paris or London. Women in the lower orders 
all wear clean white caps, or " mutches,'''' as they 
are called, and large blue cloaks, like bathing- 
dresses, which hide all deficiencies, and give to 
their appearance an air of grave respectability. 
The expression of their countenance exhibits 
more than common acuteness ; and one group 
of men in the lower classes reminded me of Ra- 
phaePs cartoon, representing Paul preaching to 
the philosophers at Athens, their countenances 



58 THURSO. 

wore so criticizing an aspect of dubious appro- 
bation, apparently more intent on discovering 
the preacher's faults than their own. One aged 
female, most conspicuously attentive, at last 
pulled the hood of her cloak entirely over her 
face, and seemed wrapped in meditation ; but I 
missed an old woman of former days, who al- 
ways listened to the sermon on account of our 
family rather than on her own, and frequently 
held up her finger to our pew when anything was 
said on the danger of riches and prosperity, or 
on the evils of " Greek learning and Latin phi- 
losophy," a favourite subject of declamation 
with the late incumbent of this parish. Oppo- 
site to his pulpit, in those days, sat a learned 
EngHsh scholar and skilful physician, Dr. Tor- 
rens, for whom my father had obtained an Ex- 
cise appointment here, that he might be in- 
duced by the emolument to settle and practise 
in so remote a district. An irresistible smile 
often stole over his intelligent features when 
hearing the new views of history, chronology, 
and the classics, then promulgated by a clergy- 
man who had been appointed at the earnest re- 
quest of the parishioners. Having, on one oc- 



THURSO. 59 

casion, allowed a young stranger to preach for 
him, our parish minister was observed to be 
restless and uneasy till the sermon was conclud- 
ed, and stopped the congregation, when about 
to disperse, by standing up in his own pew, and 
saying, "My friends ! you have this morning 
heard enough about the law, let me give you a 
little of the gospel !" 

On another occasion he argued at great length 
with an antagonist, as learned in divinity, and 
more skilful in argument than himself; but after 
retiring apparently confuted, he gave out, on the 
following Sunday, a text suitable to the previ- 
ous discussion, and then supposed a dialogue 
between a Pharisee and a Christian, wherein 
his opponent's reasoning appeared to considera- 
able disadvantage, while his own replies were of 
course finally successful. 

My late father, who valued what he possessed 
only in proportion as it might benefit others, 
transferred the patronage of this parish, when 
it became vacant, a second time to the inhabit- 
ants of Thurso, allowing them again the free 
choice of their own pastor, and in the present 
instance they have been extremely fortunate. 



60 THURSO. 

The first candidate who appeared, Mr. Taylor, 
after delivering one very eloquent sermon, was 
elected almost by acclamation ! I accompa- 
nied my father out of church on that Sunday, 
when we were surrounded by a crowd in perfect 
transports with what had been preached, and 
their unanimous presentation was instantly and 
cordially acceded to. My father felt delighted 
to be so well out of " the scrape," as he consi- 
dered it, having been apprehensive of serious 
differences ; but next morning a deputation of the 
parishioners called at Thurso Castle to say, that 
upon further consideration, they began to fear 
the election had been rashly made, and it was 
thought desirable to hear more candidates. 
Foreseeing the anarchy and confusion this would 
occasion, my father replied that the congregar- 
tion must abide by their original decision. They 
accordingly did so, which the fifteen hundred 
patrons at Thurso have never since had any rea- 
sonable cause to regret. 

Mr. Burn, the dissenting clergyman here, has 
adopted an excellent plan to discourage back- 
biting among his congregation. The moment 
any individual begins gossiping out a story to 



THURSO. 61 

the disparagement of another, he gravely pro- 
duces pen, ink, and paper, desiring his visitor 
to write down all the particulars, as they must 
be brought before the session. Having repeat'- 
edly insinuated this threat, a panic has been 
spread among informers and scandal-mongers, 
so that no one ventures to say a word of his 
neighbour which might not be printed. Besides 
the advantage of checking ill-nature, this expe- 
dient will increase his own efficiency, by proving 
his unwillingness to take up any evil report 
against members of the congregation ; moreover, 
it seems a most judicious remark of Mrs. Fry's, 
that in addressing sinners, it is always best to 
remain ignorant of their peculiar failings, or the 
admonitions of a preacher become inevitably too 
personal. Eowland Hill used to say, that every 
sermon should have three R's in it. Ruin by the 
fall, — Redemption by Christ, — Regeneration by 
the Holy Spirit, — and if to these be added an 
earnest and affectionate application of gospel 
truth, to the hearts and minds of a congrega- 
tion, no personal animadversions could improve 
the effect ; yet I have known more than one 
preacher make very marked allusion to indivi- 



62 THURSO. 

duals when present, and an instance was pointed 
out to me once in England, where a nobleman 
of perfectly unimpeachable moral character had 
been literally preached out of his own pew. 
Those who are ambassadors should surely be 
careful that no private feelings of their own in- 
terfere with the due delivery of their message, but 
remember that they represent a Lawgiver, who 
summons all, without exception, to come and 
hear the words of eternal life ; that the very pre- 
sence of any individual in church indicates a cer- 
tain degree of obedience, which ought to be en- 
couraged, and that those who are not against 
us are for us. Unless, therefore, an open 
breach be committed of any known command- 
ment, or an obvious desecration of the Sabbath, 
all should assemble in church on the same com- 
mon ground of being sinners in need of salva- 
tion, but the pulpit was never intended as a 
place for inquisitorial commentaries on the de- 
tails of private life. 

A stranger who preached last month at 
Thurso, having heard that a charity ball had 
taken place there, fulminated a vehement cen- 
sure on all those who attended. The sacrament 



THURSO. 63 

being about to take place, he said, among other 
remarks, that " those who had gone to the tap- 
room were unfit for the Lord's table," and this 
being considered in the light of a prohibition, 
several residents who had attended the ordi- 
nance unremittingly for thirty years were thus 
hindered from appearing. 

In respect to amusements for the young, 
I cannot but advocate the temperate use of 
those that seem innocent, rather than total ab- 
stinence, though the frantic excess to which 
they are carried in some houses, might make 
any Christian hesitate in doing so, as we are 
bound solemnly to remember, that those things 
which may be lawful when kept in due subordi- 
nation, are nevertheless not always expedient. 
It has generally appeared to me, that the entire 
disuse of those relaxations natural to youth, too 
frequently leads either to vice, or to slothful in- 
dolence, or to hypochondriacal fancies about 
health. It is the excess of all earthly things 
that is to be avoided, and the highest exercise 
of Christian principle is, to enjoy, without abus- 
ing, the gifts of Providence. Men occasionally 
drown themselves in water, but water is not on 



64 THURSO. 

that account to be abjured ; and the exercise of 
dancing seems to have no more intrinsic evil in 
it, than running or leaping, if kept in strict mo- 
deration, and allowed to interfere with no essen- 
tial duty. If we could get over what Lord 
Dudley called the " national insanity" of late 
hours, so that balls were to begin earlier, and 
end sooner, one of the greatest objections to 
that amusement would be obviated. A dance 
beginning at six, and ending at eleven, instead 
of beginning at eleven, and ending at six, might 
be equally agreeable, and could lead to no such 
dissipation of mind, as is now to be lamented in 
those who enter on the amusements of life to an 
extreme which obliges all rationally disposed per- 
sons to withdraw from them entirely. The ball 
at Thurso led to no excess either in hours or 
expense, but some political estrangement having 
previously taken place between near neighbours 
and old friends, it was thought desirable that 
they should meet on neutral ground, and asso- 
ciate once more on terms of cordiality ; there- 
fore about forty persons assembled, and danced 
off any feelings of irritability which had existed, 
believing that in doing so, no violation of duty 



THURSO. 65 

was committed, while a restoration had thus 
been made to sociability and good neighbour- 
hood, which it is so desirable always to preserve 
inviolate among Christians. 

If the world had been partitioned into cells, 
like a honey-comb, and each individual's own 
sphere of action limited within a separate en- 
closure, none of those admonitions respecting our 
conduct in society, so lavishly scattered over the 
sacred pages, would have been recorded ; but the 
miser who hoards his time without spending it 
well, goes to one extreme, while the spendthrift 
who wastes it on vain and heartless amusement, 
falls into an opposite excess. The true medium 
is found in Holy Scripture, where social inter- 
course among Christians is continually alluded 
to, though always in subservience to higher and 
holier duties, with the incessant observance of 
which, neither the pleasures, nor even the affec- 
tions of this life, must ever be allowed to interfere. 

There were two county newspapers published 
till lately in Caithness ; and in the far north, 
the Court circular and the fashions are most as- 
siduously studied, for whether Her Majesty be 
pleased to ride in Windsor Park, or to drive to- 



66 BARROGILL CASTLE. 

wards Kew Gardens, is fully as much discussed 
here as in the more immediate orbit of her 
royal presence. In Eoss-shire, I was amused to 
hear of a book club, where one of the farmers 
ordered the novel called " Almack'^s," being 
anxious, he said, to ascertain what the quality 
were about ; and throughout the Highlands, 
every on dit respecting Buckingham Palace tra- 
vels as safely and expeditiously northwards as 
the last new bonnet, being only a little enlarged, 
and a very little more trimmed and embellished, 
during its progress, though still in some degree 
resembling the original pattern. 

Connoisseurs in comfort would find it a per- 
fect study to see Barrogill Castle, belonging to 
the Earl of Caithness, Lord Lieutenant of this 
county. It is, as auctioneers often say, " every 
way suitable for a nobleman of rank," with all 
the internal elegance of a house in London, and 
all the exterior dignity of an ancient Highland 
residence. Some admirable improvements have 
been recently made by Burn ; and the staircase, 
which was formerly outside, as high as the 
drawing-room floor, is now thrown into the 
house, while several windows have been thrown 



BARROGILL CASTLE. 67 

out, which were greatly wanted. In those 
peaceful times, when there is no longer any ne- 
cessity for a castle to be fortified, it is pleasing 
to see the gloomy strength of former days ex- 
changed for a more smiling aspect ; and here 
we found some first-rate pictures by the best 
masters, a haunted apartment, abundance of 
interesting family portraits, and a forest of the 
very best trees that Caithness can produce. 

Apropos of trees, when we went in a gig- 
yesterday to see Castle Hill, belonging to Mr. 
Traill, the most persevering improver now in 
the North, I was very nearly killed in conse- 
quence of our Caithness horse taking fright at a 
tree ! He was evidently unused to the che- 
quered shadow of leaves on the ground ; so he 
started in the well-planted approach, pricked 
his ears, backed, and, when a gentle breeze at 
length caused the branches to flicker about, he 
fairly set off" in a panic. If we had encountered 
so terrifying and unusual an object, as another 
tree, almost twenty feet high, in any more dan- 
gerous part of our drive, the consequences would 
probably have been fatal ; but no successor hav- 
ing appeared within ten miles, our Caithness 



68 BARROGILL CASTLE. 

quadruped had time to compose his nerves, 
after witnessing so extraordinary a phenomenon. 
A celebrated tide runs near Barrogill Castle, 
called "The merry men of Mey," very noisy 
and obstreperous indeed, but no subject of mei'- 
riment to vessels, as they have to go off their 
track many leagues sometimes to avoid the vor- 
tex, and, when caught, are swept back on a 
stream, like the rapids of a rapid river. This 
is said to have been the scene of Grey''s " Fatal 
Sisters," translated from the Norse tongue. 

Now the storm begins to lower, 
(Haste, the loom of Hell prepare,) 
Iron sleet of arrowy shower, 
Hurtles in the darken'd air. 

When about to leave Caithness, we discover- 
ed that the only post-chaise in this county had 
been already bespoke to act in the capacity of 
hearse at a funeral, which seemed to me like 
one of Harlequin''s transformations. That this 
useful vehicle might have time to be altered 
and dressed for the melancholy occasion, and 
that the one only pair of post-horses might 
have leisure to rest, we hastened our journey, 



BARROGILL CASTLE. (jj) 

and with difficulty obtained leave to hire it; so 
I have at last been actually reduced to travel, 
like Miss Pratt, in a hearse ! How multifari- 
ous are the duties of this old chaise ! — the four 
wheels must be all running off sometimes in dif- 
ferent directions ! All the happy pairs in the 
county probably make their wedding excursion 
in it, if they make one at all, — it takes the 
Doctor to his patients, the boys to their school, 
sportsmen to the moors, guests out to dinner, 
and the dead to their last resting-place ! The 
horses, too, once probably grandees in a well- 
groomed stable, giving some old dowager her 
daily airing, or sharing the labour of a dozen 
other hunters, are now reduced to be servants 
of all work, summoned at every hour of the 
night or day, on every occasion of business, 
pleasure, profit, or loss, and bound to be al- 
ways, like soldiers when they enlist, " free, 
able, and willing."''' 

One of the most amusing stories of smuggling 
I know, took place at Barrogill Castle, when the 
late Lord Duffus resided there as guardian to 
the late Earl of Caithness. Having clandes- 
tinely imported sixty hogsheads of claret for his 



70 BARROGILL CASTLE. 

own private drinking, Lord Duffus thought it 
might be unsafe to lodge them all in the house ; 
therefore he built fifty-eight of them up under 
so enormous a peat-stack, that it became the 
astonishment and admiration of the whole 
neighbourhood. He then carried the remain- 
ing two hogsheads into Barrogill Castle, and 
wrote an anonymous information against himself 
to the excise-officer at Thurso, who hurried over 
immediately to investigate the case. Lord 
Duffus received him as a friend, cordially in- 
vited him to dinner, whispered confidentially 
that he could give him a capital bottle of claret, 
and after dinner, when the worthy man was 
nearly half seas over, showed him the two hogs- 
heads, and said they were scarcely worth seizing, 
but he hoped his friend would return often, as 
long as they lasted, and share the last drop with 
him ; after which they shook hands, and exit in 
mutual good humour. 



JOURNAL 

OF A 

TWO DAYS' RESIDENCE IN SHETLAND, 

WITH A 

FULL, TRUE, AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THK 

HABITS, MANNERS, AND LANGUAGE OF THE 

NATIVES, THEIR DRKSS, APPEARANCE, 

AND CUSTOMS ; 

ALSO 

NE>r AND ORIGINAL DISCOVERIES RESPECTING THE GEOGRAPHY, 

ASTRONOMY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND GEOLOGICAL 

STRUCTURE OF THOSE ISLANDS ; 

WITH A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THEIR HISTORY, PAST, 
PRESENT, AND TO COME. 

Dedicated to the Royal Society. 



' A most elaborate and deeply scientific work." — Philosophical Joiirnal. 
' We earnestly recommend this admirable volume to all readers who wish 

for profound views and erudite research." — Scientific Argii.». 
' We cannot but wish that Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Joseph Banks had 

lived to see this day !" — Popular Piiilo!>opoer. 



Ask Where's the north ? — at York 'tis on the Tweed — 

In Scotland, at the Orcades, — and there. 

At Greenland, Zembla, or, I can't tell where. 

My DEAR Cousin, — Every new country is in- 
teresting to visit once, though the real compli- 
ment is, as you say, to go a second time. I 



72 SHETLAND. 

like to ascertain with my own eyes, what is, or 
is not worth seeing in it, — whether it be better 
or worse than my own, — how people set about 
being happy there, and how they succeed. At 
one time I expected quite as much to visit the 
moon as the Shetland islands, but I have lately 
indulged a sort of hopeless wish to venture on a 
voyage of discovery towards the extreme verge 
of her Majesty^s dominions, that I might pass 
the longest day of my life in that country where 
two days are turned into one, by having no in- 
tervening night. 

Islands are troublesome articles to deal with, 
especially as I have not the courage of a butter- 
fly by steam, therefore it was a considerable ex- 
ertion the first time I invited myself to go, but 
after talking it over with myself during some 
weeks, it became a matter of course, that wind 
and weather permitting, or even not permitting ! 
the experiment should be tried, consequently one 
cold stormy morning, to my own great astonish- 
ment, we found ourselves on board the Sove- 
reign, a fine large, well-grown steam-boat, which 
touches at Wick once a- week, in full boil, on its 
route from Leith to Lerwick, and picks up all 



SHETLAND. 73 

those courageous passengers who may have 
summoned up resolution and enterprise enough 
to venture almost within sight of the north 
pole. 

Nearly every gentleman before whom I have 
happened to mention Shetland during the last 
year or two, has long intended to take a glimpse 
of these stormy isles, but while swarms and 
clouds of travellers are migrating to the most 
unattainable foreign districts, our own northern 
Archipelago remains unknown and unnoticed, 
wasting its sweets, if it has any, on the desert 
air, and scarcely upon visiting terms with a 
single individual. Pray, bring your telescope 
here some day, and try, as we are doing, to get 
a distant peep of Iceland. 

Travellers are not seen to much advantage in 
steam-boat costume, and it is certainly odd 
that, wherever a crowd is assembled in a morn- 
ing, they all look vulgar ; therefore we glanced 
round at the mob of miscellaneous beings as- 
sembled on deck, all shivering, in cloaks of 
every shape, size, and colour, little hoping to 
meet with the very agreeable society which we 
soon afterwards discovered on board, or indeed 



74 SHETLAND. 

with any thing that could be called society at 
all. 

The General Assembly of Scotland having 
recently dispersed, we found a ship-load of di- 
vines returning to their congregations in the 
north, some apparently clever and eccentric, 
some extra-eccentric, and others pious, learned, 
and communicative, who added all that was in 
their power, and that was a great deal, to the 
pleasure of our voyage, and almost every one of 
whom gave us most cordial invitations to their 
fire-sides and manses in Shetland. Mr. Hamil- 
ton, the very talented and agreeable incumbent 
of Brassay, near Lerwick, became a perfect en- 
cyclopedia of information and entertainment as 
long as we continued in the ultra-north, and 
Mr. Watson of North Yell afforded us many 
curious details respecting his parish and people. 
He officiates in two churches, divided by a broad 
and dangerous ferry, where frequently on Sun- 
day six rowers have endeavoured in vain to 
carry him across, but after pulling incessantly 
for three or four hours, and coming in sight of 
his church and the assembled congregation, he 
has been obliged to relinquish all hope of land- 

1 



SHETLAND. 75 

ing, while it was about equally difficult to reach 
the opposite shore. One of Mr. Watson's elders, 
who had to travel eight Shetland miles, a very 
vague measurement, besides crossing a wide 
ferry before getting to church, was so exceed- 
ingly zealous that never during many years did 
he once miss divine service ! This venerable 
Christian was unfortunately drowned lately 
while trying to save the crew of another boat 
lost near his own house. Mr. Watson says 
the people of Shetland, in general, testify an 
extreme value for public ordinances, and though 
his parish consists of only eight hundred per- 
sons, he generally averages at the sacrament 
about three hundred and fifty communicants. 
They are all so indigent that the collection at 
church seldom exceeds threepence ! 

The chief or only wealth of Shetland arises 
from the fisheries, and from the manufacture of 
wool, which is of so very superior a quality 
that stockings are knitted by thousands and 
tens of thousands in these islands, at all prices, 
and are sometimes fine enough to be sold for 
two guineas a pair ! I find it registered in the 
Rev. Mr. Sands' account of his own parish 



76 SHETLAND. 

Tingwall, near Lerwick, that " formerly the 
stockings of Shetland were sent to Holland, but 
the difference of their value, since they found 
their way to other markets, particularly the 
English, is said to be niearly equal to the land- 
rent of the country, and this difference must be 
ascribed to the patriotic and benevolent exer- 
tions of Sir John Sinclair." During the eighty 
years of my father''s life, he published one hun- 
dred and six volumes, and three hundred and 
sixty-seven pamphlets, written with the one all- 
prevailing desire to benefit his native country, 
and while he has been called from his labours 
to that rest which remaineth for the people of 
God, it is pleasing in every part of Scotland to 
trace the success of so enterprising and perse- 
vering a patriot. The universal diffusion of 
English sheep over our native hills, was an era 
in our national history, and has nearly doubled 
the value of many Highland properties, where, 
owing to ignorance and mismanagement, the 
Scottish wool had become so exceedingly dete- 
riorated and scarce, that, on an average, four 
millions of pounds had to be annually imported 
from Spain. In consequence of some advanta- 



SHETLAND, 77 

geous discoveries respecting wool, communicated 
by my father to the Highland Society, a board 
of inquiry was instantly formed, of which he be- 
came chairman, sparing neither time nor ex- 
pense to render it efficient, and presenting to 
the committee a hundred sheep, which he had 
collected from the royal flocks of Finance, from 
Spain, Shetland, and England, to the latter of 
which he gave that name, now so universally 
known, of " Cheviot sheep." He travelled in 
person to every county where the growth of 
wool was peculiarly successful, and at an inn 
twelve miles from Edinburgh, he gave the first- 
sheep-shearing festival which had ever taken 
place in Great Britain, where a multitude of per- 
sons from all countries sat down to a collation, 
each adorned with pastoral badges and emblems, 
and where one of the amusements consisted in 
seeing wool which had been shorn in the morn- 
ing, spun, dyed, wove, and formed into a coat 
during a single day. 

Nothing in D'lsraeli's Curiosities of Literature 
can be more singular than the origin, progress, 
and termination of my father's single-handed 
efforts to collect the Statistical Account of Scot- 



78 SHETLAND. 

land, a work for which no precedent existed in 
the world, as even the very word " Statistics" 
was invented by himself, a fact recorded in the 
old cotemporary edition of Walker's Diction- 
ary, who remarks that no name had previously 
existed for a science now so generally understood. 
To anatomize the society, population, history, 
manufactures, and antiquities of a great nation, 
required enterprize, perseverance, and even en- 
thusiasm ; but unintimidated by obstacles, he 
addressed separate letters to one thousand 
clergymen, suggesting his plan and requesting 
their aid. To some of the more indolent he 
wrote three-and-twenty times, besides applying 
to their patrons and friends, to gain their co- 
operation, and the last effort he made to arouse 
any individual's exertion was by forwarding him 
an epistle written with red ink, explaining that 
this was a final attempt to rouse his patriotism. 
After receiving many thousand letters, he em- 
ployed missionaries at his own expense to collect 
the details of such parishes as were not reported 
by the clergy, and wrote some himself. In the 
course of seven years this arduous work was 
completed, after which the author used his in- 



SHETLAND. 79 

fluence to obtain for a reward, nothing perso- 
nal to himself, but a grant from government, to 
the " Society for the sons of the clergy," of 
L.2000, and presented besides to that useful in- 
stitution, the copyright and whole pecuniary 
benefit of his labours. To himself and his family 
remained only the gratification of witnessing his 
entire success, and the honour which he deserv- 
ed for so vast and patriotic an undertaking. 
Adam Smith remarks that there are three ways 
of pursuing fame. " Those who wish to enjoy 
celebrity, whether they deserve it or not, — those 
who seek to deserve, but care not to enjoy it, — 
and those," like my father, " who seek both to 
deserve and to enjoy it." Few ever loved his 
country more, — few ever laboured as persever- 
ingly to serve it, — and few ever more deeply 
valued its approbation. When age and infir- 
mity precluded the possibility of new exertions, 
he often looked back on the difficulties so labo- 
riously surmounted in preparing the Statistical 
Account of Scotland, wuth a pleasing conscious- 
ness of having served his country so essentially. 
Even when verging towards the grave, and 
turning his thoughts to a better world, he heard 



80 SHETLAND. 

with satisfaction, though not consulted on the 
subject, that a second edition of this great 
work was in progress. Before long, volume af- 
ter volume appeared, containing no meed of 
praise for his exertions ! no tribute of gratitude 
for his liberality ! no mention even of his name ! 
A great edifice had been raised, and the origi- 
nal architect who planned the whole, incurred 
the expense, engaged the artizans, obtained a 
reward for their labours, and generously claim- 
ed no recompense for himself, was now entirely 
overlooked, but nevertheless could he have fore- 
seen the end from the beginning, his strong im- 
pulse to do good as he had opportunity, would 
still have prevailed. From that period, my fa- 
ther calmly but indignantly ceased to mention 
a subject once the source of so much pleasure, 
and latterly we avoided any allusion to it. In 
the volume which came out immediately after 
my father''s decease, a cold, late, and business- 
like acknowledgment of his name appeared, 
but as no copy of the new edition is forwarded 
to his family, I did not borrow one to peruse it. 
The heart that should have been cheered, and 
the eye that should have been brightened by 



SHETLAND. 81 

that page, were at rest for ever, and even if ample 
justice had been awarded, the praise that was 
due could have mattered little then to him who 
was beyond its reach, or to us who valued it 
only for his sake. 

The Shetland accent is peculiarly pleasing, 
but still retains so strong a tinge of Norse, that 
the somewhat foreign pronunciation led me to 
imagine several of the gentlemen who spoke to 
us, were either Frenchmen, Danes, or even 
Irish, much more than Scotchmen. A rumour 
had reached us, before embarking in the steam- 
boat, that a great man was on board ! No less 
a personage than the Danish governor of the 
Feroe Islands, son of the prime minister of 
Denmark ! His father had been ambassador 
from that Court to England, a man of great 
abilities and intelligence, who had educated our 
campagnon de voyage with great care, and be- 
stowed on him this very inadequate appointment, 
merely from a desire to improve that frozen 
region of ice-bergs and whales. 

The governor of Feroe, Mr. Ployen, had with 
great difficulty obtained permission from his 
own rulers to travel in Scotland, and had 



82 SHETLAND. 

brought a large detachment of his people to 
study agriculture, in what region of the earth 
do you suppose ? In Shetland ! ! There the 
spade husbandry, wooden harrows, stone querns, 
and little hand-mills, are a century, at least, 
behind East Lothian, and the world in general ! 
Miss Edgeworth's Farmer Good-enough, would 
have seen little cause to complain of modern 
innovations, where Captain Hay's patent plough 
has never yet been heard of, and several genuine 
Scandinavian implements of husbandry are still 
in fashion, but '"'' parmi les aveugles, mi horgne 
est roi ,•" and the Shetlanders may, perhaps, be 
some steps in advance of their more northern 
neighbours. 

Having no small curiosity to see Mr. Ployen 
and suite, we hastened down to dinner, more 
eagerly desirous to satisfy our curiosity than 
our appetite, and I was considerably entertained 
to see the Captain ceremoniously place his Danish 
guest on his right hand, and treat him, during 
the banquet, as nearly with royal honours, as the 
small cabin of our floating palace could admit, 
while the governor himself seemed exceedingly 
bored at exciting so much notice. 



SHETLAND. 83 

I have seldom encountered a more entertain- 
ing, frank, well informed foi-eigner, than Mr. 
Ployen, a tall, fair, and very dignified looking 
personage, who spoke English as well as any 
native, — or better, — and veho seemed anxious 
to make the conversation a means of giving and 
receiving as much information as possible. 
When he sketched a lively graphic description 
of his own desolate regions at Feroe, I began 
to fancy it would be quite impossible ever to 
get far enough north, as Shetland seemed a mere 
every-day affair in comparison of the immeasur- 
able precipices now described, when he laugh- 
ingly concluded his picture by saying, that we 
estimated the height of our shore by hundreds 
of feet, and he by thousands ! I must some 
day explore a north-west passage for myself, 
and measure the rocks of Feroe. 

Sumburgh-head, in Shetland, rises about eight 
hundred feet abruptly out of the ocean, and at 
North Yell, the iron-bound coast, stretching 
forty miles along the shore, forms a gigantic 
barrier of towering rocks, as if the angry, 
ceaseless billows of the great Atlantic had worn 
down, and bent the very earth by their weight. 



84 SHETLAND. 

What a mere insect man appears in such 
scenes ; but here would be a place for geologists 
to chip down the world with their hammers, 
and to frame half-a-dozen theories, or to draw 
from the rocks themselves a history of their 
origin. In some parts of Scotland, the char- 
ters of estates were anciently carved in Gaelic 
on the rocks, and here would have been abun- 
dant space for such documents. A person igno- 
rant of the law once mentioned, that a gentle- 
man had proved his claim to an estate, and on 
being asked in what way, confidently replied, 
" He has carved it on stone !"" 

While sitting at dinner in the cabin, we 
heard many interesting anecdotes of the dangers 
encountered by fowlers in scaling the rocks of 
Shetland and Feroe, where fatal accidents are 
so frequent, that the people sometimes say to 
each other, " your grandfather fell, your father 
fell, and you must follow too." Others boast 
over their companions, saying, " Your father 
died in his bed, but mine went off like a 



man 



The common mode of rifling the birds' nest 
is. for the fowlers to suspend themselves over a 



SHETLAND. nr, 

beetling cliff of many hundred feet, merely by a 
single rope forty or fifty fathoms long, which is 
so fretted and hacked by the sharp edges of 
the rock, that it occasionally breaks, precipitat- 
ing the unfortunate adventurer from so great a 
height, that the body, when found, sometimes 
retains scarcely a vestige of ever having been 
human. From habit, they become so reckless 
of danger, however, that frequently more than 
one descends by the same rope, though I scarcely 
know any occasion when it would seem more 
desirable to have two strings to our bow. 

Captain Philips mentioned, that some time 
since, a father and two sons were suspended in 
this way over a deep chasm, when the youth 
who hung uppermost hastily told his brother 
that the rope was breaking, therefore it could no 
longer support them all, desiring him to cut off 
the lower end, on which their father depended. 
The young man indignantly refused thus to 
consign his father to death, upon which his 
brother, without another moment's hesitation, 
divided the rope below himself, precipitating 
his father and brother both to instant destruc- 
tion ! We had an eager discussion, after 



86 SHETLAND. 

hearing this shocking story, whether it was 
possible to have acted better than the ami- 
able son who fell a sacrifice to duty and affec- 
tion, during which Captain Philips suggested, 
that he might have leaped off the rope, and left 
his father to be preserved ! This was a flight 
of generosity beyond the imagination of any one 
else, and we received it with great approbation. 
Indeed, we could scarcely have applauded him 
more, if the worthy Captain had actually taken 
the leap himself. 

A succession of similar stories ensued, all 
tending to prove that the Shetland rockmen 
are fit to be rope-dancers at Astley's ; but no- 
thing interested me more than hearing a descrip- 
tion of the cradle at Noss. It was formed by a 
celebrated climber from the Isle of Fowlar, who 
heard, that off the point at Noss, a detached 
perpendicular pillar stood one hundred and 
sixty feet high, and being perfectly aloof from the 
shore, was considered quite inaccessible. De- 
termined to do the impossible, and establish his 
fame for pre-eminence on the rocks, besides 
being bribed with the promise of a cow if suc- 
cessful, he with great difficulty scrambled from 



SHETLAND. 87 

a boat to the summit of this lofty point, where 
he fixed a pulley, and suspended a basket, 
which could be drawn across to the mainland, 
carrying sheep or men in comparative safety 
over a chasm sixty yards wide, and four hundred 
feet deep. Fancy yourself performing an ex- 
cursion, in this way, between the top of St 
Paul's and the monument : but that is not half 
high enough ! Where shall we place you then ? 
Suppose yourself swinging in an arm chair 
between the summit of Snowdon, and the peak 
of Cader Idris ! After this curious enterprise 
had been successfully achieved, the poor man 
forgetting how much more difficult it is to go 
safely down than to ascend a precipice, unfor- 
tunately did not take advantage of his own 
spider-like bridge, but in trying to regain the 
boat, his foot slipped, and he fell headlong 
down, where his bo^dy was never seen again ! a 
hero dying in the arms of victory. 

The Governor mentioned, that lately at 
Feroe, a fowler descended safely by the usual 
conveyance of a rope, but when about to be 
drawn up again, owing to some awkward en- 
tanglement, he arrived at the surface with his 



88 SHETLAND. 

feet upwards. His alarmed friends thought his 
head had been cut off, and felt so relieved to 
discover their mistake, that the whole party 
burst into a simultaneous peal of laughter, 
while the adventurer was very glad he had any 
face to put on the matter at all, and laughed 
heartily also. 

The upper part of these cliffs generally over- 
hangs the base; therefore the rockmen, when 
desirous to obtain a footing, are obliged to swing 
themselves many yards out in the air, that the 
re-action may shoot them back in contact with 
the precipice, when they instantly cling to any 
little projection that offers, and, after landing 
on it, anchor the end of their rope to a stone, 
and proceed with a small hand-net, stretched 
on a hoop, to spoon the eggs out of their nests, 
depositing them carefully in a sack which they 
carry behind ; and when the unlucky bird sees 
her loss inevitable, by a curious instinct she 
often pushes out the egg to save herself. An 
enterprising fowler, standing on a projection 
once, with a sheer precipice both above and be- 
low him of several hundred feet, observed the 
end of his rope become suddenly disengaged 



SHETLAND. 89 

Iroin its moorings, and swing like a pendulum 
fur into the distant space. If it escaped en- 
tirely away, he knew that death, either by a 
fall, or by the slower and more dreadful process 
of starvation, must become inevitable ; there- 
fore, perceiving that the rope, before it finally 
settled, would swing once more almost within 
his grasp, he earnestly watched the moment of 
its return, made a desperate spring forward in 
the air, clutched it in his hand, and was saved. 

Travellers are in a perplexing predicament 
when relating what they see or hear, because 
everything is either so common-place as to be 
scarcely worth mentioning, or so extraordinary, 
as to be quite beyond belief ; and your creduli- 
ty will take leave of me altogether if I continue 
on my tight-rope any longer. I shall merely 
describe one thing which amused and astonish- 
ed me exceedingly. Our steam-boat passed near 
Coppensha, one of the Orkneys, which presents 
a gigantic barricade of rocks, inhabited by mil- 
lions of birds, which we saw, though I had not 
time to count them, sitting in rows like charity 
children, with black heads and white tippets, 
ranged along every crevice in the cliffs. Cap.- 



90 SHETLAND. 

tain Philips caused several guns to be fired, 
when an uproarious noise ensued, which can be 
compared to nothing but the hurraing of a 
whole army. It seemed like a long loud roar, 
accompanied by the echoing and re-echoing 
of guns, — a whole platoon of cannon, till at 
length I fancied that the commotion could 
scarcely have been more deafening from the 
mob and artillery of London on the day of 
Her Majesty's coronation. Above, below, and 
around, the sea, air, and rocks seemed all 
one living mass of birds, screaming at the full 
pitch of their voices, rushing through the air, 
careering to the very clouds, flickering in cir- 
cles over-head, zig-zagging all round us, and 
then dropping like a shower into the ocean. 

Nothing in the way of animal life ever amazed 
me so much ! I wonder if any one on earth 
can imagine it? — no! certainly not! seeing is 
believing, and nothing else will help you. When 
I thought how many fish must be necessary to 
feed so countless a colony of feathered mari- 
ners, the miracle seemed greater still. The 
poor sillocks and herrings must have a sad 
time of it ! Shetland is the metropolis of birds. 



SHETLAND. 91 

and the greatest ornithologist might weary him- 
self here. In this cloud of living creatures are 
included kitty-wakes, cormorants, sea-larks, 
gulls, white and black scarfs, sea-parrots, maws, 
and a species of pufl&n, commonly called lyres, 
or, as the natives pronounce them, "lawyers!" 
It would occasion rather a sensation in the 
Parliament House to hear how coolly the Shet- 
landers mention having shot a brace of law- 
yers in a morning ! We could ill afford them 
a battu in Edinburgh ! 

Seals and otters abound on this coast, but I 
did not observe a single mermaid, though these 
are the bays where Sir Joseph Banks advised my 
father to catch them, using for bait, a looking- 
glass and comb ! Many interesting and " authen- 
tic !" stories are told here of mermen and mer- 
women, which would amuse you exceedingly, 
therefore, pray muster up a considerable stock 
of credulity, and listen. Far below the region of 
fishes, these mer-ladies and gentlemen, who are 
of supernatural beauty, exist in an atmosphere of 
their own, in which they seem able to live with 
very tolerable comfort in coral palaces, and 
sleeping on beds of oysters. When desirous to 



92 SHETLAND. 

pay us a visit in the upper regions, they hav»^ 
power to enter the skin of any amphibious ani- 
mal, and shoot through the water, but no son 
or daughter of the ocean can borrow more than 
one sea-dress of this kind for his own particular 
use, therefore, if the garb should be mislaid on 
our shores, he never can return to his submarine 
country and friends. A Shetlander once having 
found an empty seal skin on the shore, took it 
home and kept it in his possession. Soon after, 
he met the most lovely being who ever stepped 
on the earth, wringing her hands with distress, 
and loudly lamenting that having lost her sea- 
dress, she must remain for ever on the earth. 
The Shetlander having fallen in love at first 
sight, said not a syllable about finding this pre- 
cious treasure, but made his proposals, and of- 
fered to take her for better or for worse, as his 
future wife ! The merlady, though not, as we 
know, much a woman of the world, very pru- 
dently accepted this offer ! I never heard what 
the settlements were, but they lived very happily 
for some years, till one day, when the green- 
haired bride unexpectedly discovered her own 
long-lost seal skin, and instantly putting it on, 



SHETLAND. 93 

she took a hasty farewell of every body, and ran 
towards the shore. Her husband flew out in 
pursuit of her, but in vain ! She sprung from 
point to point, and from rock to rock, till at 
length bounding into the ocean, she disappear- 
ed for ever, leaving the worthy man, her husband, 
perfectly planet-struck and inconsolable on the 
shore ! 

In some of those islands, the rent is paid, as 
it is also at St. Kilda, in feathers, which are 
sold for ninepence per pound ; and one of ray 
father's Caithness farms had a clause in the 
lease, entitling hira to a pepper-corn rent of 
1000 sea-birds' eggs every year, though he 
never levied the tax. 

The governor of Feroe mentioned, that, dur- 
ing their fishing-season, his coast is so sur- 
rounded by shoals of bottle-nosed whales, that 
the seamen go out in a long array of boats, and 
drive them, like flocks of sheep, towards the 
shore. When this cavalcade approaches land, 
a dreadful scene of carnage ensues, while the 
terrified monsters become infuriated, and, in 
attempting to escape, they frequently upset one 
or two l)oats. The men Ijccomo nearly frantic 



94 KIRKWALL. 

with excitement on these occasions, the wound- 
ed animals bellow with pain, the ocean is dyed 
red with blood, and troops of sea-gulls, which 
always attend on these occasions, become so 
stained with gore, that, before taking wing to de- 
part, they appear to be birds of scarlet plumage. 

Escorted in great state by the governor of 
Feroe and suite, A and I landed at Kirk- 
wall, Captain Philips having granted us leave 
of absence for an hour and three quarters, but 
his one hour shrunk into a miserably short one, 
and his three quarters became nothing at all, 
as we were soon peremptorily summoned back 
on the shortest notice, by an arbitrary little 
bell, rung most impatiently before one-half 
our curiosity had been gratified. Travellers 
who rashly apprentice themselves to a steam- 
boat for a certain number of days, must expect 
less attention to the picturesque -than to the 
station most convenient for taking in coals, or 
letting out passengers, as we experienced on 
this lamentable occasion. 

The very ancient and interesting cathedral of 
Kirkwall, dedicated to St. Magnus, was begun 
seven centuries ago, by Ronald, Earl of Orkney. 



KIRKWALL. 95 

It is the most perfectly preserved in Scotland, 
and looks almost as large as the whole city put 
together. You would fancy it an arrival from 
Brobdignag among the Liliputian buildings 
around, and the whole structure would do ho- 
nour to any Episcopal diocese in England, being 
in truth a sort of country-cousin to Worcester 
Cathedral, as they are in a similar style of 
architecture, though the masonry of Kirkwall 
is coarser, and the plan scarcely so dignified. 
It is wonderful that the poor inhabitants, who 
could scarcely rear dwellings for themselves, 
should produce so magnificent a pile for Divine 
worship ! The roof is quite entire, but the lofty 
steeple was most unfortunately struck down by 
lightning several years ago, which causes a sad 
blank in the coup cVoeil at first, though much 
architectural beauty still remains. The long 
and solemn ranges of pillars and cloisters inside 
have at length become so perfectly green with 
damp, that they appear like some wonderful 
cave, over which the sea had broken for ages. 
Indeed the celebrated cave at Flamborough- 
head is not very unlike it, and certainly neither 
more mouldy, nor more weather-stained. 



96 KIRKWALL. 

We entered this hoary pile with feelings of 
profound reverence and admiration, preparing 
our minds for a solemn remembrance of the 
great men and the eloquent divines vs^ho once 
frequented those sacred walls, generation after 
generation, many of whom lie side by side in the 
last long sleep of death. The first tomb-stone 
which caught my attention was exceedingly 
handsome, exhibiting a coat-of-arms on one side, 
and bearing a long panegyrical inscription on 
the other. While gazing at this impressive 
memento with all that profound respect due to 
the illustrious dead, oujr guide gravely informed 
us that this tablet was raised in honour of the 
late dancing-master at Kirkwall ! 

Not far off, lie the venerated remains of our 
illustrious Scottish historian, Laing, whose 
memory is deserving of the utmost reverence 
and admiration from all his countrymen ; and a 
few steps distant we were shown a curious tomb 
placed under a low heavy stone arch, like an 
ancient fire-place, which was built in this pecu- 
liar form by special desire of the person under- 
neath, because an enemy had once threatened 
to dance on his grave. 



KIRKWALL. 97 

We discovered the tombs of Bishops Murray, 
Stewart, and a whole conclave of reverend 
fathers, their names, arms, and mitres, carved 
in stone, and surmounted by inscriptions, some 
too long to be read, and others with a great 
deal to say which had become totally illegible, 
though none were, I trust, what Pope calls 
" sepulchral lies, our holy walls to grace." The 
child we are told of, who saw nothing in a 
church but laudatory inscriptions, made a most 
natural mistake when he asked, " where all the 
bad people were buried V 

I was astonished at the trouble taken by our 
foreign friend, Mr. Ployen, to decypher every 
epitaph in which there appeared generally more 
sentiment than feeling ; but he seemed to have 
a remarkable knowledge of heraldry, and being 
the first Dane who had recently invaded Scot- 
land, he was evidently anxious to claim for hh 
country some credit in the founding of this 
Cathedral. With the patriotic hope of produ- 
cing evidence to prove its Danish origin, he left 
not a crevice unexplored, so that even a rat 
could scarcely have enjoyed its hole in peace, 

p 



98 KIRKWALL. 

but all in vain,— the Cathedral of Kirkwall 
gave no sign ! 

Mr. Ployen did not relish our saying, that the 
Orkneys had been ceded to Scotland by the 
Danes, but interrupted our discussion with a 
deprecating bow and shrug, saying, they were 
only mortgaged for a small sum, and the money 
had since been tendered by his government 
three times without success. Rather an awk- 
ward transaction if true. 

In the choir of this cathedral. Divine service 
is yet performed, but the whole ancient edifice 
is soon to be put on the retired list, and super- 
seded by a fine, vulgar, modern upstart, which 
is in full progress here. All that green baize 
and brass nails can do is done, to look hand- 
some, but I greatly prefer the green mould and 
yellow rust of the old school, and really would 
not grudge the good people of Kirkwall a few 
couffhs and rheumatisms rather than let them 
desert this fine old fabric, which has ornamented 
the world so long. 

Mr. Ployen expressed much surprise on see- 
ing our square pews at church, with a table in 



KIRKWALL. S9 

the centre, saying it gave him the idea of our 
intending to play at whist. No separation of 
seats was made long ago in Scotland, and nonu 
is allowed now in Denmark, where so strict an 
equality is preserved in the House of God, that 
on one occasion, a common soldier found him- 
self accidentally placed next the king. He 
hastily started up, but his majesty stopped him, 
saying, " Stay, friend ! remember there is no 
distinction here !" 

The inhabitants of Kirkwall are intended 
never to keep carriages, seeing a staircase runs 
across their principal or only street, which is 
entirely paved with large flags, and so narrow, 
that opposite neighbours might almost shake 
hands from their respective windows. Upwards 
of four thousand women are employed in plait- 
ing straw for bonnets at Orkney, and the 
annual value of what they make is averaged at 
L.30,000. Girls of eight years old, and even 
the very oldest men, can earn a livelihood by 
this means ; and during the long winter evenings, 
little sociable parties of ten or twelve meet at 
each other's houses, and work together, beguiling 
the hours with a snug gossip, and a cup of bohea. 



100 ISLE OF SANDA. 

The Castle of Orkney shelters one or two 
plane trees cowering within the walls, and hang- 
ing out a leaf or two, here and there, to prove 
that they are alive, which is almost a question- 
able fact, even with those few witnesses to attest 
it, and the country round seemed clothed in 
sackcloth. The bishop's " manse" has been 
very handsome in its day, though now worn to 
rags, and the market place is neat and exten- 
sive. 

You may search round the world, and find 
nothing more hopelessly ugly than the Isle of 
Sanda, which lies so perfectly flat and bare, 
that it might be taken for the whale's back on 
which Sinbad the sailor landed. The ground, 
from a very short distance, becomes quite in- 
visible, therefore the few houses we saw seemed 
floating on the surface of the sea, and the 
people seemed all walking on the water. It 
gave me a better idea of the deluge than any 
picture I ever saw. 

An alteration was made respecting the light- 
house here some time ago, which produced most 
disastrous consequences. The station formerly 
was at North Ronaldsha, more than three railea 



KIRKWALL. 101 

off, and many foreign ship;?, consulting old 
charts, were misled in their bearings, and 
totally lost, though such events used not to be 
universally deplored among the Shetlanders 
formerly, when a stranded vessel was considered 
quite as lawful a capture as a stranded whale. 
One of our clerical friends mentioned, that some 
years ago three brothers sailed from Hamburgh 
in different vessels on the same day, and after 
cruising to various ports without meeting, they 
were all wrecked on the shore of Sanda at the 
same time, and their ships completely lost ! 
What a melancholy rencontre they must have 
had on this desolate and fatal coast. 

A Danish princess lies interred at our family 
burying-place in Caithness, who met with her 
death under somewhat similar circumstance.?. 
She had married the chief of the clan Gunii, 
who passed himself off, at the court of Denmark, 
for being a considerably greater man than he 
really was, and when she became desirous at 
length to see the splendid residence he had de- 
scribed himself to possess in Scotland, he gal- 
lantly insisted on preceding her there, to make 
the most magnificent preparations, but no Caleb 



102 KIRKWALL. 

Balderstone being then on the spot, he was put 
to his wit's end one evening, by beholding a fine 
vessel in the distance, containing his bride and 
her suite in full progress homewards. In an 
agony of consternation, he caused false lights to 
be hung out along the coast, the consequence of 
which was that the ship foundered, and her 
body, richly dressed in jewels, having been 
washed on shore at Clythe, is buried there with 
all the splendid decorations she wore. It was 
unfortunate for the princess, that she did not 
see some such conclusive reason for refusing Mr. 
Gunn, as Lady Penelope Primrose in more mo- 
dern times, who declined the addresses of a 
gentleman belonging to that clan, giving as an 
excuse that she could not tolerate the idea of 
being called all her life " Lady Pen-Grun !" 
Persons afflicted with a name which admits of 
being punned upon, must often wish, in despera- 
tion, that some friend would leave them an 
estate, as an excuse for changing it. 

Our Danish fellow-traveller was shocked be- 
yond expression at this tragical tale, and shrug- 
ged his shoulders, till they nearly met over his 
head, on hearing the catasti'ophe. I was amused 



KIRKWALL. 103 

at the unmitigated censure he bestowed on oui^ 
country, for allowing debtors a sanctuary within 
the precincts of Holyrood Palace, where they 
enjoy unmolested liberty to range through the 
park and hills around, giving splendid enter- 
tainments, and receiving company, while the 
poor deluded creditors are in actual starvation. 
As Paul Pry says, " I don't mean to hint that 
there is anything in it, only it seems odd !" and 
we had very little to urge in defence of national 
custom on this point. Mr. Hamilton mentioned 
that the chief extravagance of his poor pa- 
rishioners consists in tea-drinking to the most 
marvellous excess, and that those who are 
starving would rather purchase tea than bread. 
You never heard of tee-totallers on so large a 
scale ! the indulgence amounts almost to an ab- 
solute vice, and the Shetlanders must positively 
establish a toast-and-water society immediately. 
About L.2o,000 worth of bohea is annually en- 
tered at the custom-house in Lerwick, besides 
which, a great quantity is smuggled by Dutch 
fishing-boats. One poor man in the parish of 
Brassay, who had the expensive infliction of a 
tea drinking wife, was cheated, by her secretly 



104 KIRKWALL. 

selling his goods to obtain tea ! He was ob- 
served once to purchase the same peck of meal 
three times over in one week, being always as- 
sured that his children had eaten it. A High- 
land laird once remarked, that the Scotch pea- 
santry were ruined by forsaking " the good old 
porridge of their ancestors !" 

Mr. Hamilton says, the kindness of all his 
very poor people towards each other is astonish- 
ing. Like the widow's cruize, their last mouth- 
ful is shared with those who are more necessi- 
tous than themselves, and no single individual 
will ever starve, unless the whole population 
perish together. Poor and destitute as most of 
them are, he deprecated any plan of assessment, 
because it would destroy all those feelings of 
mutual sympathy and independence which are 
the sole remaining comforts they possess. It 
certainly is one of the deepest mysteries in this 
perplexing world, what system is best for reliev- 
ing indigence, because while our almighty Crea- 
tor has ordained, for wise and holy purposes, 
that the poor shall be always on the earth, He 
has at the same time laid a deep responsibility 
on the rich, to do the very utmost which libera- 



KIRKWALL. 105 

lity and good sense can dictate, to relieve the 
weight of woe and painful endurance laid on 
our suffering brethren. I believe it would be 
an act of mercy to sweep from the face of the 
earth most of those large charitable institutions 
which encumber it, except such as are for the 
blind and the incurable. If an hospital were in- 
stituted, where every living being could receive, 
on application, a dish of porridge, a flannel pet- 
ticoat, and a bed, there would probably be an 
end of all exertion in the world. There must 
be, as a motive to industry, the apprehension of 
that misery, which it is nevertheless our business 
to relieve when it comes, by encouraging and 
teaching lessons of provident economy. I know 
many places at present, where industrious wo- 
men can get no needle-work at their own fire- 
sides, because they are so completely under-sold 
by large institutions, in which the expense of 
liouse-rent and coals not being paid by indivi- 
duals, the work can be done much cheaper. If 
a general distribution of clothes were made to the 
poor, in three days more than half those gratis 
wardrobes would be lodged at the pawnbroker's ; 
and in considering the failings and defects of 



106 KIRKWALL- 

every human scheme for the general advantage 
we cannot but mournfully exclaim in the lan- 
guage of Scripture, " who will show us any good V 
The two most eminent philanthropists in Scot- 
land, Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Alison, are com- 
pletely opposed in opinion respecting the most 
eligible plan for the poor; but while we la- 
ment the difficulty of ascertaining what is best, 
nothing, at the same time, can exonerate any 
Christian from anxiously studying this impor- 
tant subject, and conscientiously expending time 
and money, according to his utmost ability, and 
according to the best of a carefully formed judg- 
ment, on the great Christian object of succour- 
ing those whom our Divine Saviour has so so- 
lemnly committed to our care, measuring the 
degree of our devotion to Himself by our dili- 
gence in " feeding the hungry, clothing the 
naked, and administering to the sick ;" yet the 
great scriptural rule of letting charity be so 
private, that the left hand shall not know what 
the right hand is doing, would forbid those 
great public establishments, which are in many 
instances pernicious to the real interests of 
those whom they are intended to benefit ; and 



KIRKWALL. 107 

the Bible surely does not recognize or in- 
culcate any general and arbitrary assessment, 
which is to be deprecated, for the sake of the 
poor, whom it would degrade and demoralize, 
more than even for the wealthy, on whom it 
would become every year more oppressive and 
severe. 

Mr. Hamilton mentioned, as an instance of 
the generous feelings engendered by sympathy 
in distress, that, during the late scarcity, al- 
most amounting to a famine, an indigent old 
woman, having been presented with a boll of 
meal, divided it equally with her starving neigh- 
bours. It always appears to me, that, in this 
world, those who have real miseries bear them 
well, and those who have none invent some petty 
grievance to grumble at ; for some people en- 
dure the pleasures of life less cheerfully than 
others bear its greatest calamities. A very in- 
digent girl, not long since, after suffering all the 
saddest privations of poverty, met with an un- 
fortunate accident, which made it necessary for 
the Doctors to amputate her leg; but when 
they cautiously imparted this frightful prospect, 



108 FAIR ISLE. 

she calmly replied, " Then I shall now have a 
leg the less to endure cold from !" 

It was grievous in many places to hear a 
most heart-rending description of what the poor 
Highlanders suffered last season, when every- 
thing short of actual starvation was uncom- 
plainingly undergone. It lowered the value of 
property so much to have these circumstances 
known, that in some places where estates were 
to be sold, the proprietor forbid any application 
on behalf of his tenantry to the relief Commit- 
tee, in consequence of which, the funds, raised 
by a liberal subscription, were, I fear, very un- 
equally distributed. 

Another destitution, of yet greater impor- 
tance, is deeply deplored in Scotland, and be- 
came a subject of serious discussion among the 
clergy as we approached Fair Isle, a bright 
green spot, like an emerald on the wide ocean. 
This place is quite a little world in itself, cover- 
ed with grass of a most vivid and luxuriant 
verdure, but distant twenty-four miles from 
the nearest shore, being exactly half-way be- 
tween Orkney and Shetland, — and there four 



FAIR ISLE. 109 

liundred of our countrymen live and die with- 
out the instructions or consolations of any cler- 
gyman. The parish to which they belong lies 
in a far distant island, whence Mr. Thomson, 
the incumbent, used to visit them once in a sea- 
son, to perform all the marriages and christen- 
ings ; but now, being eighty years of age, he is 
unable to encounter the fatigue of such a voy- 
age ; and it was mentioned, that the last time 
a clergyman arrived there, several of the chil- 
dren requiring to be christened were quite old 
and uninstructed, while one boy, when the ser- 
vice was performed on himself, swore most vio- 
lently. The anxiety of these neglected people 
for ministerial teaching is so extreme, that they 
will laboriously row their boat any distance to 
bring a preacher, and only ask their expenses 
for taking him away, as it is considered ample 
remuneration for a voyage of fifty miles to hear 
a single sermon ; and Mr. Watson of North 
Yell told us, that once, when detained acciden- 
tally beyond Sunday, the whole population 
crowded round him to hear the gospel, and lis- 
tened with fervent attention. 

Many rich people disapprove loudly of fo- 



no FAIR ISLE. 

reign missions, confidently saying, " let charity 
begin at home ;" and for them here is a noble 
opportunity. Neighbours and brethren of our 
own, who have little to enjoy here, and no one 
to tell them of happiness hereafter, suffer the 
most urgent want, while a small subscription 
might supply the moderate wishes of some resi- 
dent clergyman, who would be welcomed with 
eager and grateful delight, bringing them the 
knowledge which they seem all to be thirsting 
for. 

The deputations sent by charitable societies 
travel sometimes now at a most preposterous 
expense. A lady assured me that once a ba- 
rouche and four arrived at her house in the 
Highlands, containing four gentlemen, who re- 
quested leave to see her pictures, and mentioned 
that they were a committee of clergymen from 
England, collecting funds for some religious ob- 
ject. Next day her old poultry-woman found 
several tracts scattered along the approach, and 
this expedition cost several hundred pounds, 
besides taking more than one clergyman away 
from his own charge. This is a wide world, in 
which there certainly is a great deal of good to 



FAIR ISLE. Ill 

be done, but as none of us are like the tortoise, 
who could carry the whole world on his own 
shoulders, men who would really be useful must 
measure the utmost extent of their own indivi- 
dual ability, and do the very most which is pos- 
sible, without attempting more, and too many 
parish clergymen would wander about like 
Wesley, who during fifty years never travelled 
less than 4500 miles annually. It was no bad 
jest on a certain itinerating rector of this kind, 
who frequently transferred his own work to a 
substitute, and preached in any parish rather 
than his own, that he should be nic-named 
" England, because he expected every man to 
do HIS duty.'^ 

These poor Shetlanders can afford no expen- 
sive deputations, but the half of what was paid 
for that one excursion which I have described, 
would place them permanently under the bless- 
ed influences of gospel light ; therefore I beg to 
move a resolution, which you shall second, that 
our next foreign mission shall be established at 
Fair Isle. How much I should like now to send 
round a plate for your subscriptions ! In that 
case, a missionary need not laboriously acquire 



112 FAIR ISLE. 

any difficult language, nor has he either a new 
religion to introduce or an old superstition to 
destroy, while he would be gratefully welcomed 
by a people, many of whom are mournfully sen- 
sible of their unhappy religious privations, and 
those who are not, need only the more urgently 
to be made aware of them. AVe find more ex- 
citement in sending to foreign heathens, — and 
they require all we can do, — but there are hea- 
thens at home with a yet nearer claim to pity, 
though less attractive to the fancy. I heard of a 
missionary meeting lately, at which a Cherokee 
chief was produced, covered with tatooing and 
feathers, to pray in his own unknown tongue, 
before a numerous congregation, and to make a 
speech extempore, or extrumpery as you say. 
Our poor Zetlanders would have no chance in 
comparison, yet the time and money expended by 
a foreign missionary on his long journey, besides 
studying Malabar or Hindostanee, and diving 
into the depths of Brahmin mythology, might 
be occupied with far more immediate advantage 
if he set forth at once with the English Bible 
in his hand, to teach a people nearly as ignorant 
as any barbarians, but far more willing to learn ; 



FAIR ISLE. ] 13 

and those who contributed to so desirable an 
object, might hope to reap a harvest of imme- 
diate success, and to be blessed by the prayers 
of many whom they had assisted to rescue from 
darkness, and to place in the marvellous light of 
the gospel. 

In old times, the Duke of Medina Sidonia's 
ship, the Invincible, commanding the Spanish 
Armada, was wrecked off Fair Isle, when most 
of the crew, amounting to two hundred men, 
landed in fishing-boats. So numerous a swarm 
of guests would soon have occasioned a famine, 
therefore the natives murdered several, and 
hospitably entertained the rest. If supernu- 
merary guests could be lawfully disposed of in 
this way, what a massacre would take place at 
some dinner parties we have seen. Both hosts 
and visitors were rescued from approaching 
starvation at last by the appearance of a ship 
from Lerwick. On that occasion, the Duke ap- 
peared near the shore to welcome his deliverers, 
in the splendid costume of a Spanish nobleman, 
but Malcolm Sinclair, a sturdy Presbyterian, 
who had come to entertain these foreign papists 
with all the rites of hospitality, nevertheless re- 



] 14 FAIR ISLE. 

marked, on being introduced to his distinguished 
guest, " I have seen many prettier men hanged 
on the Burrow-muir !" 

These long twilights are very enjoyable, and 
I often wish that those who have more time 
than they know how to use, could transfer a 
few superfluous hours to those who find every 
day too short for half what they wish to do ; but 
now that the stars are lighting their lamps it is 
time for me to extinguish mine. Since paper 
pillows are in fashion, you will know how to dis- 
pose of too lengthy a letter, so I must bew'are of 
being reduced to atoms, though it would sound 
extremely civil to tell a long-winded correspon- 
dent, that you never lie down without placing 
her letters under your head, — pray do not sub- 
join that they put you to sleep. " We're a' 
noddin'." 



115 



LERWICK. 



I hope there's none offended 
At me for telling this ; 
For it was not intended 
To be ta"en amiss. 

Burns. 

My dear Cousin, — Can this possibly be me at 
Lerwick ! 1 begin to think it may not be a 
dream ! You once said, in an extravagant mo- 
ment, that any letter was worth any money, so 
I hope you will retain the same opinion, while 
I now dip the pen of astonishment in the ink of 
veracity, that, since you have never been suffi- 
ciently enterprizing to travel so far, you may 
become proud of being related to any one who 
has, after hearing all our adventures by flood 
and field. 



116 LERWICK. 

When a gentleman once mentioned having 
gone to see the lion at Exeter 'Change, a friend 
satirically enquired, " what did the lion think 
of you?" rather a perplexing question; but I 
hope our lions here are as much pleased with 
us as we are with them, seeing I am already 
more than rewarded for taking this very long 
step towards the Arctic circle, and planting my 
standard on the Castle of Lerwick. 

A lady in Caithness, during one of our most 
unfavourable summers, when everything looked 
brown, parched, and barren, became astonished 
to hear a stranger talking in raptures about the 
richly verdant thriving appearance of all the 
scenery in our county. Of course she supposed 
him in jest, till it turned out, on enquiry, that 
he was a native of Shetland! Certainly here 
we see little beside grass and rocks, yet I ad- 
mire beyond measure the bold massy features 
of the landscape, glittering beneath a rising 
sun ; and there is something in it of unadorned 
magnificence very striking to a stranger. 

Lerwick is one of the oldest-looking towns I ever 
remember to have inspected, and appears like 
a small burlesque upon Venice, a range of houses 



LERWICK. 117 

being drilled along the shore, all standing up 
to their knees in water, while the sea washes 
six feet deep on their foundations ; and instead 
of dark gondolas, like coffins, floating about on 
the crystal waves, we have light graceful skiffs 
gliding rapidly along, and bending their large 
white sails almost into the surf. 

Last week sixty-three Dutch fishing-vessels 
sailed at once out of this beautiful and com- 
modious harbour in the Sound of Brassay ; and 
residents here all keep a boat instead of a car- 
riage or cart, being their only means of convey- 
ance. No seaman but a Zetlander could man- 
age these very small canoes, like wherries from 
the Thames, with the sails of most dispropor- 
tionate magnitude ; but they manoeuvre about 
in beautiful style, and the natives seem all near- 
ly amphibious, looking as if they sat upon a 
dolphin, and holding the sail by a rope, which 
is let fly the moment a blast rises, throwing the 
sheet instantly at liberty. Accidents, however, 
do happen only too frequently on these rough 
and dangerous seas ; and it is a singular cus- 
tom, that drowned persons are always buried 
far from the ocean, as if their spirits might still 



/ 



118 LERWICK. 

be disturbed by the horrors attending their de- 
cease. Do you remember Lady , when she 

heard the sudden intelligence that a gentleman 
had been accidentally drowned in the river, 
close to her windows, instantly enquired, as her 
very first question, " Was he handsome?" 

This is the first year that a tolerable inn has 
been established at Lerwick, which is consider- 
ed a most remarkable era, and the style is 
about equal to that on board a second-rate 
steam-boat, being conducted by a most respect- 
able landlord from East Lothian. If any 
wealthy traveller, wishing to be remarkably 
comfortable, had brought his own carriage and 
horses to Lerwick, he could not have penetrated 
beyond the pier, and by no possible contrivance 
could his equipage have been available in driving 
up to the hotel, which is in so narrow a street, 

that A could have easily made a long arm 

to touch the opposite house. I remember once 
meeting an English lady going by steam to 
Staffa, who said it was her intention imme- 
diately on landing, to order a post-chaise, and 
drive all round the island, but neither there nor 
here would the plan be very feasible, as not a 



LERWICK. 119 

wheel is stirring in the noiseless streets. Tluit 

peevish jSIrs. , the morning after her arrival 

at Venice, complained that she had been so 
disturbed by " the noise of carriages !" it was 
impossible to close an eye ; but the streets at 
Lerwick are about equally carriageless, being a 
curious assortment of courts, connected by 
lanes, and intersected by stairs, one of which 
divides the High Street quite across, and some 
of the streets are even arched over at the top. 

The only road in Shetland goes six miles to- 
wards Scalloway Castle, and we were told that 
but one gentleman ever had a carriage here, 
when he used to drive his wife several times up 
and down the whole distance, to give her an 
idea what a journey means. It might be said 
of him, as your old friend used to remark of her 
English relation, with a look of great import- 
ance, " He is the richest man in London ! he 
keeps his chariot !"'"' The short road to Scallo- 
way is, like all short cuts, nearly impassable, 
leading over a peat-bog, to be cleared in a suc- 
cession of leaps, but if any one wishes to see a 
Shetland pony shine, he should mount on his 
back, the heavier the better, and perform a 



120 LERWICK. 

steeple chase over all the chasms and walls 
which He in the way along the fine " corduroy 
road." Walking is, of course, a most necessary 
accomplishment in this country, where the 
shoes are made of materials so very substantial, 
that an old gentleman used to say, he wore in 
the morning three rows of nails on the sole, 
but for full dress only two rows. 

Some spirited proprietors projected great im- 
provements here in road-making, and would 
have summoned M'Adam himself from the deep ; 
but unluckily one landlord, a soi-disant baronet, 
has, with short-sighted economy, put a spoke in 
all their wheels, refusing to let a stone be 
broken unless some very extravagant terras be 
conceded. This unfortunate impediment must 
be a great annoyance to all the residents, and I 
wish they could be delivered from it, " To be 
disposed of, — an old established grievance, — 
going very cheap !" Nothing but an act of 
Parliament can lay down a road here now, such 
as had been projected, not that the ambition of 
Shetland pointed to a mail with four horses, 
attended by a guard blowing his horn, and fly- 
ing round the islands to carry tourists round 



LERWICK. 121 

Noss and Scalloway ; but no one can tell what 
half a century may produce, and on my next 
excursion to this region, I have promised to 
bring my chariot, while our friends have under- 
taken to provide a suitable road. Perhaps you 
may live to see some time a railway, like a 
great iron hoop, surrounding Great Britain, with 
the whole population circling round at full speed, 
as we see children at a fair, wheeling along on 
a " turn about."" 

The introduction of a weekly steamboat to 
Shetland has begun a new era in this countr}'. 
Formerly all communication with other places 
became so tedious and uncertain, that none 
could be safely depended on, A few years since, 
one of the principal merchants here, who pos- 
sessed more than twenty ships of his own, be- 
came so anxious for letters, that he sailed off to 
enquire for them personally at Edinburgh. 
There the postmaster objected to deliver any, 
saying, it would be too great an advantage to 
give him over the other mercantile houses at 
Lerwick, if he obtained his correspondence so 
prematurely, and it was not until after the 

G 



J22 LERWICK. 

greatest difficulty, and legally proving his iden- 
tity, that he could obtain the packet. 

The lower orders in Shetland seem rather 
beneath the middle size, especially when com- 
pared to the tall Dutch skippers, stalking about 
in loose tunics, high caps, and heavy wooden 
clogs, which seem a most uncomfortable article 
of dress, being excavated in a solid block of 
wood, as if the foot had supernaturally forced 
its way in. We used to read in the Richmond 
play bills, of a hornpipe to be danced on the 
stage in wooden shoes, but here it could neither 
be light nor fantastic, as these slippers, liable to 
be shuffled off at every step, seem made to im- 
pede walking. The Dutch sailors exchange 
shoes with the Shetland ers for stockings, so that 
their traffic is easily set on foot. 

The sheep in these islands look like goats or 
greyhounds, having long legs and lank bodies, 
and their colour is of that peculiar brown and 
blue which the Shetland stockings usually ex- 
hibit. Some are speckled of various hues, and 
go by the name of Jacob's sheep, though not 
lineal descendants of that flock. All the ladies 



LERWICK. 123 

here employ their long evenings in knitting ; 
and even the hard-working women, when carry- 
ing on their backs the enormous heavy " creels" 
which are used here instead of carts, yet con- 
trive to have a perpetual stocking on hand. I 
met one cleanly dressed chatty old gossip, the 
sort of looking personage who hobbles on the 
stage at the beginning of a farce, exclaiming, 
" How my old bones do ache !" and she assured 
me with great exultation, that she manufactured 
a stocking per day, and that every article she 
wore was entirely of her own spinning. I liked 
to see her honest pride, and if the gown had 
been French cambric, she could scarcely have 
expected me to admire it more. 

Before inns were invented at Lerwick, the 
proprietors and merchants kept open house for 
all strangers without exception, and must often, 
I should guess, have found occasion to look over 
the inventory of their plate, when exercising 
such boundless hospitality. A party of well- 
dressed, plausible looking foreigners arrived 
here once, and having previously ascertained 
the names and connections of all the chief inha- 
l)itants, they passed muster during several 



]24 LERWICK. 

weeks, living at the principal house on the 
island. One Sunday, however, their hospitable 
host was privately beckoned aside by a friend, 
who had observed his companions in the pew at 
church, and recognized them as a party of well- 
known black-legs from Paris ! He recommended 
their being ejected from the house, in the most 
expeditious manner possible, but their enter- 
tainer replied, with characteristic liberality, 
that, " though he would now be on his guard 
against imposition, yet while his guests continued 
to behave like gentlemen, he would persevere in 
treating them as such." Previous to departing, 
the ungrateful visitors attempted some swindling 
transactions, which were, of course, counter- 
acted, owing to this timely detection, and they 
were opprobriously dismissed from Shetland ; 
but, unfortunately, their schemes prospered 
better in Orkney, where they afterwards cheated 
some merchants to a large amount ; and it was 
a curious termination of the whole affair, that 
upon leaving Kirkwall, they very handsomely 
transmitted to the parish clergyman L.5 for the 
poor ! This was an amusing sort of Eobin 
Hood generosity, but some who deem it right 



LERWICK. 12.") 

to refuse money collected for charitable pur- 
poses, unless they approve of the means by 
which it has been raised, would be rather per- 
plexed how to dispose of such a donation. 

Among countless instances of peculiar hospi- 
tality, it may be mentioned, that a Mr. Bruce 
received into his house some years ago, forty 
Russian shipwrecked sailors, maintained them 
during the whole winter, and sent the entire 
crew, at his own expense, back to their native 
country. He declined receiving any recompense, 
but the Empress Catherine privately obtained 
an impression of his family seal, sent it overland 
to China, and ordered a magnificent dinner 
service of the finest porcelain to be manufactured 
for him without delay. By some unfortunate 
oversight, the box containing this precious gift 
was seized at the custom-house, and sold to a 
Mr. Reid, in whose possession it still remains, 
though I cannot but grudge him every dinner 
he eats off it. Mr. Bruce, while he lived, 
lighted a large fire every winter night close to 
the shore, and had a barrel of meal ready to be 
cooked into porridge, for distribution among 
any number of poor sailors visiting those distant 



126 LERWICK. 

shores. They were also allowed clean straw to 
sleep on at night, when unable otherwise to 
procure a bed. 

The gentry at Lerwick are still so extremely 
kind to strangers, that our landlord should lock 
up his guests, as the only chance of keeping any, 
or he may perhaps be provoked at last to act 
like the innkeeper at Luss, who, finding himself 
nearly ruined by the parish clergyman beguiling 
away all his visitors, at last one night carried 
his sign to the manse and nailed it over the 
door. 

One of the most uncommon subjects for as- 
tonisliment, to a stranger, in Shetland, is, when 
he first discovers the very near neighbourhood 
of every gentleman's town and country house. 
The two are generally within sight of each other ! 
We were shown Mr. Mouat's elegant residence 
in Lerwick, and looking full in its face, from the 
opposite side of a narrow bay, stands Gardie 
House, his country-seat ! It is a large, hand- 
some, well-windowed house, which seems to be 
staring about on every side and wondering when 
the trees will come up. Mr. Ogilvy has, what 
Eobins the auctioneer would call a most magni- 



LERWICK. 127 

ticent and desirable country residence, surround- 
ed by gardens, terraces, and offices on an exten- 
sive scale, but, by the help of a speaking-trum- 
pet, you might deliver a verbal message from his 
drawing-room in the country to his drawing- 
room in town ; and Mr. Hay's rural retreat is 
exactly a ten minute's walk from his mansion in 
Lerwick. All the principal families here make 
a regular " flitting" every season, from town to 
country, probably leaving their PPC cards for 
each other, and, after taking a pathetic leave of 
the metropolitan gayeties, set out, by easy stages, 
changing horses as often as may be necessary, 
and plunging into the wilderness of rural enjoy- 
ment within half a mile. In London, those who 
have no estates often close their front windows 
for the summer, and withdraw out of sight, while 
etiquette forbids their being visible in town, and 
to the Shetland gentry the change is scarcely 
greater. If a Court Circular be ever established 
at Lerwick, we shall read a list of 

FASHIONABLE CHANGES. 

Mr. Mouat, for the summer, from the north to 
the south side of Lerwick Bay. Mr. Ogilvy and 



128 LERWICK. 

family, half a mile west, for change of air. Mr. 
Ployen, from Feroe, on a southern tour in Shet- 
land and Orkney ! 

Fort Charlotte, at Lerwick, — an imposing old 
fortification, all bristling round with guns, — is 
in good repair, and serves partly as a jail, where 
we saw four youths under fourteen, one of whom 
was a gentleman"'s son, confined in solitary cells, 
for a burglary committed at Orkney, when they 
robbed an old man of eighteenpence. They all 
maintained that the money was immediately to 
have been returned, as they merely intended a 
jest, but the law does not understand such prac- 
tical jokes. The jailor's wife said, within hear- 
ing of the young criminals, while tears started 
to her eyes, that she never had seen more excel- 
lent boys, and pronounced their panegyric in 
terms so glowing, that a gentleman present 
thought it full time to remind her and the pri- 
soners that such unqualified praise could scarcely 
be merited by young gentlemen placed under her 
husband's lock and key. 

A stranger, who had landed with us from the 
steam-boat, was much entertained by a corporal 
who accosted him, when wandering about the 



LERWICK. 129 

fort alone, and announced with great official im- 
portance, that he was " the Governor ! " adding- 
the important fact, that four thousand pounds 
of gunpowder were placed under his charge, but 
on inquiring it came out that he has no autho- 
rity to fire, even if an enemy appear, and that 
he has the command of no garrison but himself. 
A party of mischievous boys at Lerwick, on one 
occasion, alarmed the whole surrounding country', 
by privately loading one of the superannuated 
cannons at Fort Charlotte and firing it off! 
Some part of the wall was shattered, in conse- 
quence of an extra charge having been thrust 
in, and a sensation was occasioned by the ex- 
plosion like that caused to Sir Walter Scott^s 
Antiquary when the beacon-fire at Fairport was 
lighted. The whole population of Lerwick flew 
to ascertain what enemy had landed to take 
possession of the island, and we can scarcely 
wonder at some panic being excited, considering 
that the nearest naval force which can be sum- 
moned to protect any part of Scotland is sta- 
tioned at Chatham. If Paul Jones had a suc- 
cessor, he might land in Shetland any day, as he 



130 LERWICK. 

did once in Galloway, and take the very tea-pots 
off the breakfast-tables. 

On the last birth-day which George the Fourth 
lived to see, the flag-staff at Lerwick Oastle fell 
prostrate to the earth, which was afterwards 
considered a prophetic omen. The very same 
pole is now so insufficiently propped up that all 
well-wishers of her present Majesty should sub- 
scribe to raise one, which shall promise, by its 
firmness, to see out the present century, or longer, 
if possible. Loyal as the inhabitants of Shet- 
land are, however, their woods and forests could 
scarcely supply so much as a pair of Dutch clogs, 
and still less a new flag-staff", but we must sup- 
pose the trees were all cut down to show the 
sea views, which are so very fine. The tallest and 
grandest tree I saw during my stay on the 
island, was a stalk of rhubarb nearly seven feet 
high, which had run to seed, and waved its head 
majestically in a garden below the fort, looking 
quite shady and ornamental. It had been plant- 
ed by some officers, and really did them great 
credit. The Arabians have a proverb, which I 
wish we may all live to see realized here, " Be 



LERWICK. 131 

patient, and the mulberry-leaf will become 
satin." 

I expected to observe Shetland ponies gallop- 
ing in every field, but they are chiefly running 
wild among the distant unenclosed hills, where, 
in most instances, the fore-legs are manacled 
together. Nothing is trusted to the honour of 
a Shetland poney, but they are all shackled in 
a most uneasy manner, hobbling along like rab- 
bits, which inconvenient contrivance ruins their 
paces afterwards. When well fed from an early 
age, they grow nearly to the height of a don- 
key, but some years ago, Mr. Hay reared a 
perfectly well-formed poney, which measured 
only twenty-six inches high. Not so tall as a 
moderate-sized hobby-horse ! I have heard 
sportsmen talk in praise of a horse that would 
canter round a cabbage-leaf, but here was one 
literally capable of doing so. The very largest 
men ride these tiny little creatures at full 
speed, looking from a distance as if they had 
merely hooked on a pair of additional legs, be- 
ing scarcely raised a foot off the ground, and 
yet racing rapidly along. How would a regi- 



132 LERWICK. 

ment of cavalry look, mounted, or lowered ra- 
ther, on these stout little chargers. 

Many very curious arctic birds stray over to 
this country, and I have seen one most beautiful 
snow-owl, which had been killed in this neigh- 
bourhood, as large as an eagle, and the colour 
of a swan-down muff. Eider ducks are very 
abundant, and eagles so very destructive, that 
live shillings a-head used to be given for shoot- 
ing them. Swans appear in great flocks during 
spring. I daresay you have not forgotten our 
friend, who said he had very nearly sent you a 
swan-down muff from the Highlands, and when 
we asked an explanation of the reason why so 
welcome a present never came, it turned out 
that he had merely " seen a flight of wild 
swans over his head, and wished he had a gun !" 

Of course all the birds here must live on the 
ground, having neither hedges nor trees in 
which to form a colony, but the plovers and 
other unambitious kinds make themselves quite 
at home. I am told the crows build their nests 
offish-bones, as a substitute for sticks, which 
shows a great deal of genius, equal to that of 



LERWICK. 133 

the Greenlanders, who form their houses of 
whalebone. It is interesting thus to observe 
how nearly instinct can approach to reason, in 
adapting means to an end, but the one is born 
at once to its utmost perfection, and the other 
is cultivated or destroyed by the possessor, ac- 
cording as he employs it, and may be advanced, if 
used in a Christian spirit, to higher and higher 
perfection every day, stretching from earth to 
heaven, till it reaches the ceaseless progress of 
an eternal existence. 

Nature is outlined along this coast on so 
magnificent a scale, that we scarcely miss the 
softer touches, which give grace and beauty to 
a landscape. All that rock and water can do, 
is done ; and while ornamental vegetation is en- 
tirely wanting, that which is useful seems abun- 
dant, especially in the valley of Tingwall, where 
grain and vegetables ripen in their utmost per- 
fection ; the pasture is so excellent, it would 
have transported an Argyleshire laird, who was 
asked some time since whether he had been dis- 
appointed in his first view of Staffa, when he 
replied, " Quite the contrary ! I was told the 



134 



LERWICK. 



island pastured only twenty sheep, and I count- 
ed fourscore !" 

The labour and expense to which several 
proprietors have gone, in cultivating trees and 
gardens, do prodigious honour to their persever- 
ance, patriotism, and taste ; but in a climate 
where gooseberries scarcely ripen on the wall, 
and apples are unknown, what can be done ? 
We have all a tendency to that respectable 
weakness of thinking our own country the best 
in the world, and the enterprising cultivators 
here, may console themselves about their un- 
productive soil, by saying, as the Duke of Wel- 
lington said of his army, " It is given to me to 
make the best of !" 

The youngest children in Shetland can make 
an income of twenty shillings per annum, by 
catching the small fish named " sillocks, or 
pars," abounding in swarms here, which owe 
their value to the oil extracted from them, two 
thousand barrels of which were manufactured 
in one year, from those diminutive fry, not mea- 
suring above four or five inches long. Thus food 
and light become easily accessible in a country 



LERWICK. 135 

where grain is scarce, and where the days are 
not over long. 

In the churchyard at Tingwall, this inscrip- 
tion appears on an old tomb-stone, " Here lies 
an honest man !" It seems like an implied im- 
putation on all those buried near him. There 
is more truth perhaps in that simple memorial, 
than in a panegyrical epitaph I was busy read- 
ing at a certain cathedral lately, wondering 
how so great and good a man could ever have 
been spared out of the world, when the beadle, 
observing my occupation, quietly said, " He was 
the very reverse, ma'am, of all you see there !" 

We had an excellent sermon at Lerwick from 
the parish clergyman, Mr. Barclay, formerly 
professor of elocution at Aberdeen. He gave 
us so edifying an address, that if I could attend 
church .in Shetland without crossing the sea, it 
would give me pleasure to go often. The inn- 
keeper conducted us to his own pew, and I had 
scarcely time to settle myself comfortably, before 
the clerk, a most respectable man in black 
robes, began publishing, in an easy gossiping 
tone, the banns of several marriages. Not see- 
ing any objection to the proposed alliances, I 



136 LERWICK. 

forbade none of them, but began speculating 
how it could possibly happen, that in this 
strange place, the clerk's voice and physiognomy 
seemed quite familiar to me. He sung particu- 
larly well, being one of the best " precentors" I 
know, and after a moment"'s perplexity, it flash- 
ed across my recollection, that this was actually 
" mine host" from the bar ! We almost ex- 
pected to find a charge for the pew in his bill, 
but our expenses from beginning to end in Shet- 
land could scarcely cover the point of a pin. 

Nothing could exceed the hospitality and 
kindness we received from Mr. Hay, who is 
quite a northern lord of the isles, his name be- 
ing as intimately connected with Shetland as 
Bonaparte*'s with St. Helena, and his house be- 
comes a home to every stranger who reaches 
these shores. A great distinction is made here 
between " Scotchmen and Shetlanders ;"" but 
the Scotch hospitality, for which we are justly 
celebrated, is almost outdone by our northern 
neighbours, many of whom were most kindly 
urgent that we should measure our visit by 
weeks rather than by hours. I have promised, 
if any wind blows me here again, to remain as 



LERWICK, 137 

many days as will enable us to see every thino- 
thoroughly ; so, considering what scarce commo- 
dities good days are, our visit may probably ex- 
tend throughout a whole season. 

On INIonday we discussed in long and anxious 
debate with Mr. Hay how that one only morn- 
ing we had for seeing all Shetland, could be most 
advantageously disposed of, and he entered into 
our case with the same mature deliberation as if 
I had consulted him about the investment of my 
whole fortune. The day threatened every thing ! 
wind, rain, mist, and cold ! nothing could look 
more unpropitious, but still some adventure must 
be achieved, and as we could not visit both Scal- 
loway Castle and Noss Cradle, we weighed the 
castle against the precipice, balancing and re- 
balancing their merits with the most careful 
precision, and puzzled beyond measure which 
must kick the beam. At last it suddenly oc- 
curred to me that I can see a castle any day, 
but such a cradle as that of Noss never, there- 
fore the scale began to preponderate greatly, 
when Mr. Hay being summoned on business to 
Lerwick, committed us to the custody of his son, 
ordering ponies to the door in case we preferred 



138 LERWICK. 

Scalloway, and a boat if we determined to try 
a second childhood in the cradle. 

As Burns remarked, " the plans of mice and 
men are liable to go awry." Nine hours after- 
wards, when Mr. Hay retu.rned, he found us still 
seated in the drawing-room, having seen neither 
the one place nor the other, as unfortunately a 
squall of wind, with bitter torrents of rain, had 
come on, accompanied by a fog, which cut the 
head off every precipice and hill. It was the 
sort of rain that never stops, being dogged-look- 
ing and obstinate, proceeding from large moun- 
tainous clouds, hanging heavily down, as if Ben 
Lomond andSchiehallion had mounted overhead, 
therefore we resigned ourselves to a very pleasant 
chat in the house, with the agreeable family cir- 
cle of Mr. Hay, joined by Mr. Hamilton, who had 
crossed from Brassay to meet us again. As 
Chateaubriand desired a friend to inscribe his 
name on the pyramids of Egypt, that posterity 
might never guess he had actually left the coun- 
try without inspecting them, we must get our 
signatures engraved on the cliffs at Noss. 

It has been long remarked, that the gentry in 
Shetland use their long winter evenings to great 



LERWICK. 139 

advantage, in reading most extensively, which 
becomes so obviously the case in conversing with 
them, that I began almost to regret our own 
days not being equally short. Perhaps also the 
cold winds here assist in sharpening people's in- 
tellects, a propos to which I am about to start a 
perfectly new philosophical theory on this very 
subject ! Warm climates certainly do enervate the 
mind, as we see that the lowest- scale of intellect 
prevails in Africa, China, and the West Indies, f/'' 
Italy and France are greatly inferior to Eng- 
land; — Scotland excels them all, and even our 
great magician, Sir Walter Scott, before writing 
his Pirate, or his journal, took a sharpening in 
Slietland. Now, this all combines to prove, on 
undoubted premises, like Phrenology or Animal 
Magnetism, that peculiar acuteness should be 
expected in minds nearest the pole, and if you 
think a course of popular lectures on the subject 
would " take," perhaps I could sketch out the 
prospectus. Common phraseology favours my 
discovery, as every man who makes too clever a 
bargain with his neighbour, is said to be " too 
far north for him !" and, besides, the most bril- 



140 LERWICK. 

liant magazine in Scotland is edited by Christo- 
pher North ! Need I say more ? 

Instead of travelling over Shetland with us, 
Mr. Charles Hay very obligingly showed me a 
chart of it, on so large a scale, that three inches 
are given to each mile, and not a single peat- 
stack seemed wanting, therefore we made a lei- 
surely tour over the wide expanse, pausing oc- 
casionally to hear elaborate descriptions of the 
curiosities we ought to have seen, and of the ac- 
cidents we might probably have met with; all 
very interesting, but also rather tantalizing. 

During a short promenade, we inspected one 
of the primitive mills frequently used here to 
grind corn, exactly similar to those of Norway, 
and I wish the whole board of agriculture had 
accompanied us to be diverted at the sight of 
this antediluvian machinery. It consisted of 
four very low dykes, with a turf roof, beneath 
which, a small stream running in a trough not 
four inches deep, turned a wheel placed horizon- 
tally instead of perpendicularly, so that half the 
force was neutralized, and there you have the 
whole concern ! 



LERWICK. 141 

Near the Cleik'em-in-Mill, we were shown a 
most amusing Httle miniature cottage, containing 
one window behind, one before, one in the roof, 
and a door, but there are five apartments inside. 
Bum or Gillespie might liave been proud of laying 
out the accommodation to so much advantage, 
but it was all planned and executed by the pro- 
prietor, a custom-house officer, on hospitable 
thoughts intent, who wished to have spare beds 
for his friends. The dining-room is so very small 
that any one sitting at table, must rise and 
stand quite upright against the wall, if the door 
be opened ; but this superb residence rejoices in 
a name larger than itself, being called " Glen- 
spleuchen," and the owner may always keep up 
his dignity like the gentleman described in an 
old ballad, — 

" Stately stcpt he east the vva', 
And stately stept he west." 

The finest remnant of a Teutonic Castle which 
ever enchanted the society of antiquaries may be 
seen on the island of Mousa, twelve miles dis- 
tant from Lerwick. It stands about forty feet 
high, looking externally like a small p}Tamid of 



142 LERWICK. 

Egypt, — or some pre- Adamite conformation, — 
or an old glass house — take any comparison you 
like best. It is composed of two circular walls, 
one within the other, like the ivory balls from 
China, leaving a passage about five feet wide be- 
tween. This interval is said to have been used for 
a place of safety during war, and as these retreats, 
from their winding about, were called dragons 
or serpents, it has been conjectured that an al- 
lusion to such ancient sanctuaries may have 
originated the allegorical romances, afterwards 
so popular, relating to beautiful Princesses who 
were guarded by monsters, and rescued by dra- 
gons. 

There is, in most well-constituted minds, an 
instinctive respect for rank, which certainly 
ought to exist in a high degree, if, as in many 
cases, it only adorns what is in other respects 
pre-eminent, and acts as " the- guinea stamp" 
on that which is already gold. In a country 
like Shetland, without any I'esident nobility, I 
scarcely think, that if all the pleasing, well-bred 
people we conversed with had been insensibly 
transformed into dukes and duchesses, it could 
have made our evening circle more agreeable 



LERWICK. ] 43 

or entertaining; but at present, the great theme 
of conversation in every house, and the most 
deservedly popular person in the far north, 
seems to be a young nobleman, the first English 
peer who ever penetrated into Shetland. It 
certainly is most gratifying to a part of the 
world, usually forsaken and neglected, even by 
those who are its natural residents, that the 
inhabitants have been repeatedly visited, on 
terms of cordial kindness and intimacy, by one 
who might choose his own society in any part 
of Great Britain, and whose estates are almost 
equal in value to any one of the three northern 
counties in which, for the last two years, he has 
resided. The young men in Shetland expected 
nothing but luxurious indolence from an " Eng- 
lish Lord" possessing unbounded wealth, whose 
guardians had recently purchased an addition 
to his vast estates to the value of L.900,000, 
but they were astonished at his arriving across 
these dangerous seas, having performed a voyage 
of one hundred miles in an open fishing-boat, 
and still more that, being an accomplished 
scholar, and accompanied by one of the most 
pious and learned tutors at Oxford, he neverthe- 



144 LERWICK. 

less excelled in all the field-sports and athletic 
exercises to which they were accustomed. 

The three predecessors of Lord Ward were 
each, in their day, pre-eminent for something. 
The first was so distinguished for his personal 
appearance, that in the well-known print you 
have seen, representing Lord Chathara"'s death, 
his figure was made the most prominent of all. 
My grand -uncle, Lord Dudley and Ward, who 
succeeded him, expended so many thousands 
every year in building churches, and in the most 
lavish charitable benefactions, that he was justly 
called " the rich man's model, and the poor 
man's friend ;"" and his son, the late Earl Dud- 
ley, Secretary of State to George the Fourth, 
though his great abilities were tarnished by an 
extraordinary degree of eccentricity, was, never- 
theless, one of the most brilliant wits and ac- 
complished scholars of his time. Though an 
only son, yet from infancy he never knew the 
happiness of domestic life, having been, at the 
early age of six months, placed by his rather 
whimsical parents in a separate house and esta- 
blishment, where they occasionally visited him, 
but his education was entirely superintended by 



LERWICK. 145 

a succession of nursery governesses and tutors, 
and he always declared that his only experience 
of a happy home was when placed at last under 
the roof of Professor Dugald Stewart, at Edin- 
burgh. His life of early solitude engendered 
those peculiar habits which occasionally clouded 
the lustre of his shining abilities, and among 
other strange customs, he acquired so uncon- 
querable a habit of thinking aloud, that his in- 
timate friends used to say, in allusion to his 
two titles, that " Dudley was speaking to 
Ward."" The ludicrous effect produced by these 
public meditations during his Majesty's cabinet 
councils, became a principal cause of his retire- 
ment from office. On one occasion, when a gen- 
tleman obligingly took him home in his carriage, 
to avoid a shower of rain, he conversed diligently 
with himself during their progress, spying, " I 
suppose he will expect me to ask him to dinner ! 
I'm afraid it must be done."" His companion be- 
ing fond of a jest, instantly commenced an accom- 
paniment, muttering to himself quite audibly, "If 
he asks me to dinner, I shall certainly not go !" 
Upon hearing this. Lord Dudley laughed heartily, 
made an apology, and insisted on the invitation 



146 LERWICK. 

being both given and accepted, which according- 
ly it was. A fall from his horse, on the conti- 
nent, seems to have occasioned some disease of 
the brain, which brought a melancholy cloud 
over his latter years, and at his own express 
desire, all his papers were destroyed, leaving no 
record behind worthy of his great intellect, be- 
fore it darkened into the gloom of night. 

The steam-boat being about to sail from 
Shetland, we were now called on to decide 
either on leaving the island immediately, or 
staying an entire week. If we could have lingered 
on from day to day, I might probably have en- 
joyed myself there for a month, but it is a se- 
rious thing to accept an invitation from stran- 
gers for seven long days ; and though the hos- 
pitable inhabitants appeared to think that those 
who once came there should never go away, 
Avhile we were surrounded by more agreeable 
friends than I ever made in so short a time be- 
fore, each of whom we were sorry to leave, yet 
we adhered firmly to our original plan of de- 
parting, " much and justly regretted." Mean- 
time the weather had become stormy, the wind 
cutting like a scythe, and the atmosphere more- 



LERWICK. 147 

over so hazy, that I felt almost tempted to set- 
tle for life in Shetland, rather than encounter 
the very formidable voyage before us. We wish- 
ed it had been possible now to summon the ob- 
liging genii who carried Prince Camaralzaman a 
thousand leagues without disturbing his slum- 
bers ! I envied every bird that flew past, and 
scarcely dared even to look at the sea, thinking- 
how much too intimately acquainted we should 
soon become ; but after a PPC dinner with 
]\Ir. Hay, we embarked, escorted by all the kind 
friends we had acquired at Lerwick, on board 
the steam-boat, or Damp-skiffs as it is appro- 
priately named in our friend the Danish gover- 
nor's language. 

Having been always hitherto accustomed to 
consider Thurso Castle as the ultima tlmle, I 
could not get over the oddity of receiving the 
good wishes of our companions for a pleasant 
voyage south to Caithness, and certainly the 
prospect of its being safe or agreeable seemed 
momentarily diminishing. The captain ex- 
pressed great surprise at my embarking on such 
a night of fog and wind, while a poor woman, 



148 LERWICK. 

who had brought three ponies to be transported, 
said the evening was too rough for them, and 
led her little flock ashore. I very nearly deter- 
mined to accompany them back, and had not 
quite made up my mind on the subject, when 
suddenly the vessel started off in full career, 
the skiff containing our convoy of friends gradu- 
ally vanished in the fog, the waving of hand- 
kerchiefs ceased, and Shetland was no more. 

I felt much amused at a sailor, when we came 

on board, observing to A , " I thought you 

would not stay long. Sir ! the climate is too 
cold for any gentleman !" 

What a night this was ! I dared not go be- 
low at all, but turned two days into one, by re- 
maining on deck, watching the endless twilight, 
while our tottering boat wrestled through the 
long sweeping waves, which tilted us up as if 
we had been placed on an enormous swing, and 
then away we dashed into the very bosom of the 
ocean, casting up a sheet of spray which drench- 
ed all the deck. Never were mountains so ea- 
sily ascended ! we sprung up the side of Ben 
Nevis or Snowdon at a single bound, and then 



LERWICK. 149 

rushed down a Montagne Russe to the bot- 
tom, — 

While ev'ry mad wave drown'd the moon, 
Or whistled aloft its tempest tune. 

The sun set, looking dimly and coldly through 
dark stripes of grey cloud, as if enclosed within 
a large iron grate, and burned to embers, but 
at last it went entirely out, so the world re- 
mained, with nothing visible by the cold wan 
twilight, but the moon, the stars, and myself. 
The whole creation seemed like a dream, so so- 
lemn and indistinct, as if the world were in a 
trance, but for the stormy wind which blew with 
unabated vehemence. Nothing brings to my 
mind so awful an idea of the wrath of God, as 
that sustained exhibition of His mighty power, 
to be traced in a hurricane. Even a thunder- 
storm is scarcely so impressive ! 

Morning was at last ushered in by the crow- 
ing of a cock most vociferously, and the sun 
himself emerged from the ocean like a globe of 
liquid fire, blazing over sea and sky, till both 
were illuminated with a flood of splendour. I 
should have liked, for the moment, to be an 



150 LERWICK. 

Italian improvisatrice, and apostrophized the 
sun, moon, stai's, ocean, and all the grand ob- 
jects which had so recently delighted me ; but 
the true sublime of their existence is only to be 
fully appreciated in connection with their great 
originator. I could not but think, if the sun 
were an eye visibly watching all we do or think, 
it would cause a most solemnizing restraint 
over all our actions, " What scenes that orb 
has look'd upon, since first its race began !" 
Yet this bright luminary is but one manifesta- 
tion among thousands, gloriously testifying the 
perpetual presence and unceasing watchfulness 
of that omnipotent Being who created us and 
it, — whose eye is in every place, " behold- 
ing the evil and the good." Why do we not 
more constantly remember that great and holy 
Being, who " compasseth our path and our 
lying down, and is acquainted with all our 
ways." 

I contrived to stand on deck, grasping hold 
of a rope, and clinging to the gangway, whil(> 
Captain Philips traced out the whole scene of 
Sir Walter Scott's Pirate, and treated me to a 
running criticism on its merits, which might 



LERWICK. 151 

have made a valuable article for the Quarterly 
Review. He had lately complimented the novel 
by a second perusal, and pointed to where once 
stood the ruins of Jarlshof Castle, and where 
the towering precipice of Fitful Head still keeps 
its station, looking almost supernatural. It 
rises four hundred feet perpendicularly out of 
the ocean ; and at the moment we passed it, 
was crowned by fantastic wreaths of mist, 
blown into strange unearthly peaks, the whole 
of which looked so perfectly solid, that you 
might have fancied they were all actual rocks. 

Captain Philips is a most fearless navigator, 
having once attempted the nearly impossible 
exploit of sailing through " the roost of Sum- 
burgh," a boiling sea, which dashes tumultu- 
ously up to the base of a headland, towering 
bold and erect nearly one thousand feet high, 
thus raising its head to heaven, while storms 
and tempests rage unheeded at its foot. There 
the Atlantic and German oceans meet, on not 
very peaceful terms, and the waves break up 
with such gigantic strength, that the spray is 
sometimes thrown several hundred feet over the 



152 LERWICK. 

rocks, falling back in a perfect Niagara of foam; 
and a long stream of turbulent billows may be 
traced three miles into the ocean, caused by 
this concussion of tides. Vessels inadvertently 
entering its vortex during a comparative calm, 
have been tossed, without hope of escape, for 
three or four days, with the waves washing 
almost in a stream over the deck. This de- 
scription reminded me of the young lady who 
suddenly changed her mind about going to 
India, and gave, as her reason, that she was 
told, " every vessel, in crossing the line, re- 
mained three days under water !" 

On the occasion of trying his powers in the 
Roost, Captain Philips penetrated forwards, 
till the Sovereign was literally boring through 
the waves, and being at length within a few 
buckets of becoming quite engulphed, she with 
some difficulty wheeled about, not quite drowned, 
and all but swamped. Since then, no audacious 
paddles have intruded within that very respect- 
ful distance at which we kept from Sumburgh- 
head, which has presided over some fearful 
shipwrecks. Many a noble vessel has there 



WICK. ]53 

sunk to rise no more, and many a despairing 
eye has fixed its last glance on those mighty 
cliffs! In 1595, the Earl of Orkney made a 
law, that if any man attempted to relieve vessels 
in distress, he should be punished in his per- 
son, and forthwith severely fined, at his Lord- 
ship's own pleasure, a discretionary power, ex- 
ercised on so very extensive a scale, that he 
was finally executed at Edinburgh for his tyran- 
nical and rapacious conduct. It was rather an 
awkward superstition among the lower orders 
long ago, that whoever rescued a drowning 
man, might depend upon receiving some mortal 
injury from his hand ; but I hope the Humane 
Society can give a different report in modern 
times, and return a favourable verdict of " not 
proven."" 

The harbour at Wick is considered, during 
an east wind, the most dangerous part of a 
voyage from Shetland ! therefore, seeing the 
wind riotous, and the waves tossing up their 
white curly heads in the bay. Captain Philips 
recommended that we should trust ourselves in 
preference to a small boat in Sinclair bay, which 



154 WICK. 

accordingly we did, landing near the ancient 
walls of Ackergill tower, after a nineteen hours 
passage from Shetland ; and really, considering 
all we had come through, I felt rather astonish- 
ed to see myself alive and well. When did you 
ever hear of a voyage in which people were not 
within an inch of their lives ? The innkeeper at 
Wick proved himself quite a genius in his line, 
having actually shown so much forethought, as 
to place a gig in waiting for us close to the 
surf, in which we deposited our heavy baggage, 
and walked to the town, two miles off, where, 
even on these desolate heaths, I could have 
exclaimed, like Gonzalo, " Now would I give a 
thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren 
ground." I would say of such a voyage, as 
Lord Chesterfield did of hunting, " Do people 
ever go a second time .'" It certainly is a won- 
derful infatuation, and every excursion I make 
is always " positively for the last time, and by 
particular desire ;" but again and again some 
dire necessity occurs, and I become " an invo- 
luntary voluntary"" once more on the sea. 
If you are desirous to have a letter answered 



WICK. 155 

immediately, write always to the busiest per- 
sons you know, for they are always the most 
punctual, of which my epistle to-day is an un- 
deniable instance. In considerable haste, and 
with a one-legged pen, yours, &c. &c. 



156 



FERRYTOWN. 



Though to the west retreating, 
Daylight may soon be fleeting; 
Welcome ye darker hours, 
Our sunshine is within'. 

My dear Cousin, — If our correspondence con- 
tinues to be kept up so diligently, we shall both 
soon resemble the Spanish author, who wrote 
three times as many pages as he lived days in 
the world ; and though he was considered a 
wonderful man in those primitive times, it is 
quite an everyday case now, for there are many 
living authors who can make a ream of paper 
" look foolish" in a month. Easy writing is 
said to be very hard reading, but we have 
weekly and monthly opportunities of trying the 
experiment now, as many who might become 



FERRYTOWN. 157 

standard authors, if they did themselves any jus- 
tice, prefer writing against time. Such works 
come out in a galloping consumption from the 
first, published, bought, read, buried in obli- 
vion, and succeeded by a fresh progeny from 
the same pen, all within the period of a Quar- 
terly Review, and we are scarcely allowed time 
to form a more accurate estimate of their value 
than the student who hurried through Euclid in 
a week, and said it was very amusing, but he 
could make nothing of the pictures. Formerly 
the world was said to be divided into three 
classes. Those who live to read, — those who 
live to act, — and those who live to talk, — but 
you will allow we have a fourth class now, more 
numerous than all the others united, — those Avho 
live to write. I remember hearing of a whimsi- 
cal publisher, who used, at his dinner-parties, 
to make authors take precedence according to 
the bulk of their works. The folios walked first, 
the quartos followed, the octavos came last, and, 
I suppose, the duodecimos dropped in to tea, 
but if your correspondents have rank on the 
same scale of measurement, this letter will pro- 



158 



FERRYTOWN. 



mote me to a place of great distinction, a 
mean it to be perfectly endless. 

An Italian proverb says, " Ever}- road leads 
to Rome," but here the most northern highways 
in Scotland are like the spokes of a wheel, all 
centring at Inverness. Though I would gladly 
sweep round a hundred miles, to avoid revisiting 
the same place, no other outlet presents itself 
towards the south, and therefore we resigned 
ourselves to a tiresome da capo. An Irishman 
got himself once into .the greatest perplexity 
while counting on his fingers a party of three 
with whom he had dined the previous day, 
" There were the two CFlanagans one, myself 
two ; but who was the third ? The two CFlana- 
gans one, myself two ! !" — now in the same way, 
to save repetition, my two visits to Inverness 
shall be reckoned for one, though, previous to 
our arrival, the journey of one hundred and 
twenty miles is worth describing, as we were 
pursued the whole way by the same hurricane 
which escorted us from Shetland. I enjoyed it 
now most comfortably, however, on shore, admir- 
ing the picturesijue effect of ships in a storm. 



FERRYTOWN. 159 

and feeling most thankful not to be on board. 
Some travellers are in such haste, they would 
sacrifice their lives to save half an hour, and a 
gentleman who wished to proceed by the mail 
yesterday from Golspie to Inverness, finding it 
full, embarked in an open boat, which was in- 
stantly blown out to sea, carried off the contrary 
way, and finally dashed to pieces, but he was 
himself picked up almost alive, as far north as 
Helmsdale, by a Frenchman who was passing 
by chance, and arrived safe this morning at the 
point from which he set out ! 

When we reached Ferrytown the sea was 
covered with a drifting foam, so that even the 
mail could not think of crossing, and the ferry- 
man'^s wife told us that, though he usually crosses 
in ten minutes, her husband had been at sea six 
hours during the morning vainly trying to get 
over. She was in tears most of the time, ex- 
pecting him every instant to go down, but there 
he stood now perfectly safe; and it would have 
made you smile to see the little ordinary look- 
ing old man who had been the object of interest 
and affection so intense. Her feelings were 
rather more pleasingly testified than those of 



160 



FERRYTOWN. 



Lady for her husband, when he nearly fell 

overboard from a steam-boat, and she called out 
to a sailor, " Take care of that man, for he be- 
longs to me !" 

The ferryman seemed quite ready to try an 
experimental trip across, if any of us had the 
least curiosity to go. He wore a silver snuff- 
box, given him for saving the lives of fifteen per- 
sons on a former occasion, which was some en- 
couragement, and he seemed quite anxious for 
another opportunity of distinguishing himself. 
I saw the spot where a boat was upset thirty 
years since, when ninety-nine persons were lost, 
and we were shown the very wave in which an 
English gentleman, an admirable swimmer, was 
drowned some years ago, so that seemed quite 
warning enough ! I prefer, at any time, avoiding 
a danger to escaping out of it, and, therefore, 
when we heard some time afterwards that a 
boat was actually in preparation to carry the 
mail across, I proposed a resolution and second- 
ed it myself, that A and I should remain 

a day at the Ferry-house, which question was 
triumphantly carried by a Whig majority of one. 

It was an interesting moment when we stood 



FERRYTOWN. 161 

on the shore, accompanied by several other tra- 
vellers as prudent as ourselves, watching with 
strained eyes the little enterprising vessel toss- 
ing and tumbling on the angry billows as if it 
had been mad, but the letter-bags landed in 
triumph at last, having been blown over in nine 
minutes ! Those who received their corres- 
pondence that day, little knew at what hazard 
these epistles were punctually forwarded. 

A boatman who conducted us to the little 
cottage-inn at Ferrytown, informed me that the 
landlady only admitted " very particular people," 
but our reception was favourable, and she even 
condescended to cook some excellent hot cakes, 
as we were quite in the humour of taking what 
your friend calls " a big tea." This was the 
smallest inn I ever entered, but remarkably tidy, 
with table-cloths, sheets, and damask towels, 
as fine as in any gentleman's house. How un- 
fortunate that the good old spinning days of 
Scotland are over : aged women no longer find a 
cheerful companion in their wheels, the busy 
hum of which used to beguile their lonely hours. 
Every cottage then amassed its treasures of 
home-made linen, so that while the younger 



162 INVERNESS. 

women, like our landlady, added, to the comfort 
of their household and children by active indus- 
try, the aged used very frequently to occupy 
their latter days, with a melancholy satisfaction, 
in preparing their own winding-sheet, and the 
perfect pride and pleasure with which the dying 
now talk of having their " dead clothes" ready, 
would sometimes almost startle you. 

As one of the greatest agricultural meetings 
in the north was taking place at Inverness, and 
two hundred gentlemen had assembled to dine 
here, from all parts of the country, we were quite 
astonished at our own good fortune in obtaiii- 
ing comfortable apartments at the Caledonian 
Hotel, where I scarcely expected to find stand- 
ing room. Many years ago, my father succeed- 
ed in establishing a yearly wool-market at Inver- 
ness, Avhere no one can say there is " much cry 
and little wool." The sales are so extensive, 
that more than 100,000 sheep generally change 
owners here annually, besides an incredible 
quantity of wool. From the window of our sit- 
ting-room, I can see at this moment a solid mass 
of several hundred people belonging to every rank 
and degree, who have stood immovable there 



INVERNESS. 163 

during two successive days ! English cloth mer- 
chants, Scotch proprietors, farmers, factors, and 
shepherds, all evidently with their brains wool- 
gathering, are so busy making bargains, that 
they mind a shower of rain no more than the 
sheep do they are selling, while the weather is 
hopelessly dismal, and the sky of one universal 
leaden hue, as if our whole world were under the 
canopy of a tin dish-cover. 

We are amused with observing how much cha- 
racter may be traced in the different ways those 
innumerable people set about transacting their 
business. Some are swaggering along, taking 
every man by the button, and looking as patro- 
nizing and consequential as possible, — others are 
sneaking about as if they had picked a pocket, 
or intended doing so, — some look so sharp and 
acute, that I would feel sure of being over- 
reached by them, if they so much as exchanged 
civilities with me, — one or two look as if they 
could cheat another, if he only tossed up with 
him for sixpence, and others seem perfect ima- 
ges of dulness and stupidity, remaining as still 
as if they had been turned into lamp posts. 



164 INVERNESS. 

I expected to have passed through miles of 
sheep on the road to Inverness, and to have en- 
countered myriads in the town ; but not at all M | 
every free and independent flock sends a repre- 
sentative in the shape of the drover, who attends 
to the interests of his constituents, and sells 
them for what he can get. Several of these 
Highland shepherds are very " primitive forma- 
tions," and one I observed, from our own county, 
so large and athletic, he might have brought, 
without much difficulty, a sheep in each pocket. 
This very respectable man, John Paterson, who 
is a well-known character in the north, began 
the world as a herd-boy on my father's property, 
and when he drove our flocks from the High- 
lands formerly to market, always managed to 
billet them every night on the fields of our friends 
or relatives. Proprietors were occasionally 
thunderstruck in a morning to behold a shower 
of sheep scattered over their meadows, appar- 
ently quite at home, while worthy John Pater- 
son thought it a perfectly sufficient apology to 
say they were " Sir John's !" He has repeat- 
edly been heard to mention, that his own for- 



INVERNESS. 165 

tunc originally amounted only to 8s. 6d., but 
now, by honest industry and skilful manage- 
ment, it has multiplied into L.25,000 ! 

Several other instances were pointed out to 
me, in which the rearing of sheep had become an 
equally successful speculation, and formerly, my 
father used to tell me, that about the year 1790, 
he had declined an offer from Mrs. Mackay, the 
proprietor of Bighouse, who wished him to give 
her an annuity for life of L.300 a-year, and to 
take her estate in exchange, which was sold not 
many years afterwards for L.50,000, owing to 
the success of the British Wool Society, which 
he originated and established. The value of 
Highland property was thus so greatly enhanced, 
that the estate of Reay, which previously produ- 
ced only L.1500 a-year, was purchased by the 
late Duke of Sutherland for L.450,000 ! 

Sheep have their merits, and they now cer- 
tainly fulfil the prophecy of old Thomas the 
Rhymer six hundred years ago, that " the teeth 
of the sheep shall lay the plough on the shelf." 
A whole flock must have changed their names 
to mutton for the dinner to-day, as two hundred 
hungry gentlemen drew in their chairs at six, 



166 INVERNESS. 

with Mr. Donald Home to preside, one of the 
most popular and convivial presidents for such 
occasions in the north, and he filled the chair, or 
perhaps I should rather say, the woolsack, with 
great eclat, till a late hour. 

It often amuses me to calculate the many years 
of preparation which all necessarily combine to 
produce the grand result of a perfectly well-or- 
dered dinner party. In the first place, the very 
servants who wait at table require a long ap- 
prenticeship of drilling and practice, before they 
acquire the sort of legerdemain and discipline, 
absolutely essential on their part, — then the 
cook must have been initiated, in the deepest 
mysteries of his art, and the very guests have 
been taught from infancy, not to eat with their 
knives, and how to conduct a conversation in 
which there must neither be ignorance, pedantry, 
flippancy, or dulness. The four quarters of the 
globe also send contributions to the entertain- 
ment, and the wines perform at least one voyage 
to India before Messrs. Cathcart and Fergusson 
think them fit to be issued from their cellars at 
Leith. 

\\'e hear much discussion now, respecting a 



INVERNESS. 167 

railway througli the vale of Strathraore to Aber- 
deen, so the forests may be trembling on their 
native hills, as a few strokes of the axe will soon 
degrade them into sleepers for the railroads. 
The Duke of Sutherland is said to have gained 
more than L.l 00,000 by taking a tenth share in 
the railway between Birmingham and Liverpool, 
which cost five millions; but where will money 
be found sufficient to bore tunnels through the 
great mountains of Aberdeenshire, or to raise 
viaducts between them ? 

We now proceeded on our journey eastwards, 
passing Castle Stewart, a tall, narrow, square 
house, built by the Regent Moray, and still most 
comfortably habitable, having descended by in- 
heritance to the Earl of Moray, who is proprie- 
tor of so many fine places, he must be at a loss 
sometimes to remember all their names. A 
group of thriving old cherry-trees flourishes near 
the castle, transplanted from Kent 150 years 
ago by Alexander Earl of Moray. Buchanan men- 
tions, in writing of the " Good Regent," that 
" his house was like a holy temple. After meals 
" he caused a chapter of the Bible to be read, and 
" asked the opinions of such learned men as were 



]68 NAIRNE. 

" present upon it, not out of vain curiosity, but 
" from a desire to learn, and reduce to practice 
" what it contained." The fruits of such a life 
were exhibited in the truly Christian spirit of 
forgiveness with which he met his death, on the 
tragical day of his murder at Linlithgow. 

When changing horses at the neat little city 
of Nairne, I saw, near the inn, that singularly 
unfortunate being, James Mitchell, now forty- 
five years old, the son of a clergyman, respect- 
ing whom Professor Dugald Stewart read an 
interesting paper once before the Royal So- 
ciety. He is quite an anomaly in nature, be- 
ing born without the faculties of speech, sight, 
or hearing, yet displaying some glimmering in- 
telligence of countenance and conduct. His 
existence must be a dreary blank, a living- 
death, without ever having enjoyed any of the 
sights or sounds of life, and scarcely having 
known any of its affections. The most perse- 
vering and generous kindness has been shown 
him by an amiable sister, who invented seve- 
ral ingenious devices for communicating what 
she wishes, by the touch of her fingers, and she 
has deservedly obtained considerable influence 



NAIRN. 1G9 

over his naturally passionate and wilful disposi- 
tion. To her he is docile and obedient, but all 
his actions] being regulated by mere impulse, 
no idea of duty or principle can be conveyed 
to his mind, his intellect, if he has any, being 
buried in impenetrable darkness. How strange 
it would be, to know what are the thoughts and 
feelings of such a being ! He is 'said to have 
an almost preternatural acuteness of touch and 
smell, and his greatest delight seems to be de- 
rived from handling carriages when they stop 
near the inn, trying the elasticity of their 
springs, and stroking the horses with great 
caution. He touches and feels whatever is near 
him, and seems gifted with astonishing cu- 
riosity, as well as some invention, one instance 
of which is, that when he wishes to ride, he 
places his hand under his foot like a stirrup. 
He kneels during family prayer, and when his 
father died, having been led forward to touch 
the corpse, he shrunk back with obvious horror, 
which may lead us to suppose that he has some 
instinctive apprehension of death. From that 
hour he never would sleep in the bed where his 
father's body had been laid, but some time af- 



170 NAIRN. 

terwards, he took a stranger into that apart- 
ment, and laid his own head back on the pillow 
for a moment, having done which, he hurried 
his companion towards the churchyard, and 
patted his father's grave with his hand. How 
gratefully we should enjoy, and carefully improve 
the faculties given to ourselves, when we con- 
trast the blessings they bring us, with the 
mournful state of this poor outcast, consigned 
to perpetual darkness, solitude, and silence. 
We are often apt to think the blind more 
cheerful than the deaf, not considering that 
those who have lost their sight can only be 
amused in society, and are then seen at their 
best, while those who are deprived of hearing, 
may forget their affliction over a book, but are 
reminded of it perpetually in company. Did 
you ever hear of the Irish clergyman who 
preached for the Blind Asylum formerly, and 
began by gravely remarking, " If all the world 
were blind, what a melancholy sight it would 
be!" 

After passing through Nairn, we crossed 1 
" the witches' moor !" where Macbeth had his 
interview with the withered old hags. Their 



NAIRN. 171 

dancing days are over now, and besides, we 
were rather too early for their cantrips, or for 
being favoured with any predictions of coming 
greatness to (ourselves.^ No grass ever grows 
where a witch's foot has trod, and this " blast- 
ed heath"" seems bare enough to prove for cer- 
tain, that on the very identical spot we saw 
they appeared, and on no other. We carefully 
kept our gravity here, as you are probably 
aware, that if any one smiles on a witch in the 
Highlands, his mouth remains awry for ever 
afterwards. 

In discussing, for the hundred-thousandth 
time, the marvellous genius of Shakespeare and 
other imaginative writers, I could not but lament 
that many sensible persons consider it essential 
now, in educating children, to exclude entirely 
all works of fancy, even when written for sacred 
purposes, adhering rigidly to matters of fact, 
and preserving the body without the spirit of 
thought. All depends, no doubt, on the use 
made of that powerful faculty, which may be 
degraded to vicious purposes or exalted to the 
highest, and it was well observed, that as the 
swan sings before it dies, it would have been well if 



1 72 NAIRN. 

some poets had died before they sung, but still, 
the abuse of a gift in some instances or in many, 
does not warrant its utter extinction, and there 
are uses for the imagination, important, not 
only to our interests in time, but in eternity. 
The muse of poetry has been degraded often to 
the vilest purposes, and is yet so consecrated by 
Milton, Cowper, Montgomery, and others, that 
I could not but compare the contrast thus af- 
forded, to the vulture*'s wing soaring as high as 
that of the eagle, but while the one shuns the 
brightness of meridian day, and keeps his gro- 
velling eye on earthly objects, the other scans 
the very heavens and fixes his unflinching gaze 
on the dazzling orb of light. Religion itself is 
directed more to the imagination than to the 
senses, and I have often thought, in attending 
the last sufferings of a Christian's death-bed, 
how glorious is the triumph of that which is un- 
seen, over that which is endured, when all the 
agonies of dissolution are superseded and nearly 
forgotten, amidst the faith and hope with which 
an unseen eternity has been joyfully anticipated, 
and in the vivid conception of that blessedness 
which " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nei- 



BRODIE CASTLE. 173 

ther hath it entered into the heart of man to 
conceive." 

We admired beyond expression the pine-co- 
vered hills, like those of Norway, and the five 
miles of forest around Darnaway Castle, where 
the richly wooded grounds exhibit trees enough 
to make a railroad round the world. I never 
now see a plantation without thinking of ^the 
saw-mill, and it is a melancholy connection of 
ideas, like Xerxes weeping over his followers, 
because in fifty years they could exist no longer. 

The park round Brodie Castle is charmingly 
wooded. One half of the house is old, like the fa- 
mily pedigree, and an elegant new front-breadth 
has been added, giving all the light and com- 
fort which very ancient houses so seldom afford. 
1 recognized Burn's touch at once, for architects, 
like painters, have a style not to be mistaken. 
The recent appendix is rapidly assuming an ap- 
pearance of antiquity, and dressing itself up in 
festoons of ivy, which will cause it to harmonize 
admirably with the rest, so that, before many 
years, they will appear a very suitable match. 

The ceiling: of one beautiful old room here is 
adorned by the richest dark oak carving in Scot- 



174 BRODIE CASTLE. 

land. It would make the fortune of a dozen 
sideboards and cabinets, being sculptured with 
the minuteness of seal-engraving, and there are 
eagles, cupids, unicorns, flowers, and fruit, all in 
full relief, the whole effect being so handsome, 
that I am scarcely surprised the fashion of or- 
namented roofs has been restored, and that 
people expend more on their cornices than on 
their carpets. 

The family portraits here possess an addi- 
tional interest to us, representing ancestors from 
whom we ourselves are descended, but the first 
of my progenitors to whom I was introduced, 
Emilia Brodie, made so extraordinary a grimace 
at me, that I shall never forget it. The painter 
had evidently intended a bewitching smile, and 
hazarded a distortion of features, such as might 
probably be the efffect of eating the sourest of 
all lemons. In another apartment appeared the 
beautiful portrait of a young girl about sixteen, 
with whom I hastened to claim kindred, when 

A , in a most provokingly matter-of-fact 

manner, investigated the case, and discovered 
that it was a plain elder sister who married into 
our family. 



BRODIE CASTLE. 175 

A very animated, but by no means beautiful. 
Flora Macdonald was there, looking like a clever 
schoolmistress, but not by any means realizing 
my previous conception of that celebrated he- 
roine.- Here also we admired the twentieth 
original of Charles the First, by Vandyke, which 
I have seen, and the monarch must certainly 
have sat vis a vis to the artist all his life, to pro- 
duce so interminable a succession of portraits, — 
generally representing Charles the First with his 
head on, and riding a melancholy grey horse. It 
was a strange circumstance, recorded by Lord 
Southampton, that the night after his Majesty's 
execution, having been permitted to watch beside 
the body, he heard at midnight the heavy tread 
of some one coming up stairs, the door then 
slowly opened, and a man, muffled in his cloak 
and concealing his face, but strongly resembling 
Oliver Cromwell in air and voice, approached 
the bier, gazed at it for some time, shook his 
head, sighed, and withdrew, saying, in a melan- 
choly tone, " cruel necessity !" How extraor- 
dinary was the combination of enthusiasm and 
hypocrisy in the Protector's character, " Forc'd, 
though it grieved his soul, to reign alone ! " 



176 BRODIE CASTLE. 

Our connoisseursliips thought very highly of 
one fine picture by Murillo, representing, as 
usual, a boy laughing, so extremely natural that 
you would have listened to hear the burst that 
seems coming. Some children were frightened 
one day while looking at it, and said, " that man 
is always laughing at us !" How very early in 
life, the terror of being laughed at commences, 
and, like most other instincts of nature, though 
useful in moderation, it becomes pernicious in 
excess. 

Rembrandt was the greatest admirer of 
wrinkled old women who ever held a brush, but 
in one of his pictures here, he condescended to 
paint a young man not yet in the vale of years, 
and another exception to general rule was a 
portrait actually vmfaded, by Sir Joshua Rey- 
nolds, of a beautiful lady and child. 

In the spacious dining-room at Brodie Castle, 
modern portraits and landscapes are hung pro- 
miscuously, like a morsel of Somerset House 
arrived in the Highlands, and the subject of one 
picture in the entrance-hall, was what no other 
artist before or since appears ever to have 
thought of selecting. You remember the story 



BRODIE CASTLE. 177 

of" King John ordering a Jew's teetli to be all 
successively drawn, till he confessed where his 
treasures were concealed, and here he is, in the 
very act of endurance, represented so naturally 
that I almost heard hira scream. If Hutchins 
or Nasmyth had been the operators, he might 
have kept his secret for ever, as patients have 
declared they scarcely knew when the deed 
was done, while some even protest it is almost 
a pleasure, but this painting commemorated 
tooth-drawing in the old school, and seemed so 
horribly true to life, I should soon have felt a 
toothache with looking at it. 

I have often wondered how it happens that 
dentists are almost invariably great encouragers 
of sculpture and painting? We lately heard, 
that when Cartwright, who makes one of the 
largest professional fortunes in London, bespoke 
a picture by Landseer, he enclosed him in pay- 
ment a blank order on the Bank of England, to 
be filled up a discretion ! and the wife of a cele- 
brated dentist, some time since, out-bid every 
competitor, for some beautiful work of art, which 
was long and keenly contested, but I could not 
help laughing when told, that in the triumph 



178 FORRES. 

of success, she exclaimed, " It will be of great 
use to divert our patients in the operation 
room ! " I scarcely think even Hogarth could 
succeed there; but this representation of the Jew 
would serve as very appropriate scenery and de- 
coration for such a torture chamber. 

" How faris't call'd to Forres?" Shakespeare, 
hem ! The town of Forres may be recognized at 
any distance, or in any picture, by the round, 
hedge-hog-shaped hill of Olunie, which raises its 
dark well-covered head immediately behind the 
streets, surmounted by another of the many 
ugly monuments by which Nelson''s memory has 
been commemorated. I wish people had more 
taste ! We toiled up twice in one day to admire 
a splendid view from the summit of this emi- 
nence, and, when the sun was setting in brilliant 

style, A had the barbarity to propose a third 

expedition, but there are limits to what a rational 
being can undertake, and I sighed over the hill 
instead of ascending it; 

Not quite half a mile from Forres, stands 
probably the most ancient piece of history in 
Great Britain. To commemorate the final re- 
treat from Scotland of the Danish king Sueno, 



FORRES. 179 

a dark gray stone was erected, measuring about 
twenty feet perpendicularly above ground, and 
supposed to penetrate almost equally far under- 
neath. The whole shaft is in one unbroken piece, 
and must have travelled from some unknown 
distance, as no such stone can be found in all 
that neighbourhood. On the surface is carved a 
hieroglyphic representation of the whole Danish 
army, some on foot and others on horseback, 
some with heads, and others without, the draw- 
ing and execution being nearly equal to what may 
be seen on cakes of gingerbread at a fair. The 
material is so very hard a granite, that those 
who executed the devices must have possessed 
strong hands and good chisels. Few works of 
man have remained so long unchanged on this 
earth, where " monuments themselves memo- 
rials need," while the frail beings who raised it, 
could scarcely have anticipated how many ages 
would roll over their forgotten graves, while this 
only record should remain of their ever having 
existed at all. 

Being much interested in this very ancient re- 
lic, I hurried to the landlady at Forres, with 
a multitude of questions about her venerable 



180 FORRES. 

neighbour, but she civilly replied, with a look of 
indifference, " I've often he''erd tell of that auld 

stane, but I never saw it !"" A wished her 

to start off instantly, as the evening was fine, 
that not another day might be added to the 
many she had already lost, but we could not 
light up a single spark of interest or enthusiasm ! 
A dish of whipped cream would have excited her 
curiosity ten times more ardently, and the hoary 
pillar of Forres may stand there as long as it 
has stood already, before she moves a yard to 
behold it! Our hostess would make an exem- 
plary quakor, as one of their superstitions is 
never to go sight-seeing, probably thinking, that 
after female curiosity having done so much harm 
originally, it should always now be kept in check. 
I once asked a quaker lady, recently returned 
from Orkney, what she thought of the fine ca- 
thedral at Kirkwall, when she replied, with a 
cold reproving look, " I believe we passed it!" 
The quakers have a rule also against dressed 
dishes, and their whole dinners consist of plain 
joints, apparently on the plan of your friend who 
always ordered an additional chicken for every ad- 
ditional visitor, till at last sixteen hungry guests 



SANQUHAR HOUSE. 181 

sat clown to sixteen roasted fowls ; but this would 
not have suited our good landlady, who is by no 
means of the Mary Stedman school, but was 
quite a " professed cook." She had acted the 
part of Mrs. Couch or Pouch for many years at 
Brodie Castle, and sent us up for dinner a 
complete page of Mrs. Glass, or Meg Dodds, 
copied to the very life. 

Sanquhar House, near Forres, the property of 
Mr. Fraser Tytler, is very charmingly situated, 
commanding a fine view of nearly a whole coun- 
ty, and of a rich landscape, reaching even to the 
Caithness hills. The house itself is rather too 
much in the gable-end school of architecture to 
suit my fancy, but it may perhaps please other 
people. A former proprietor of this estate be- 
came bankrupt, sold the estate, and, in his old 
age, wandered as a beggar to that very door 
where once he had been proprietor! Many 
would rather have starved. 

We remained all Sunday at Forres, and next 
morning hired horses for the day, to see how 
much of this neighbourhood they could contrive 
to show us. You may remember the old lady 
who used to say that " if she killed a pair of 



182 DARNAWAY CASTLE. 

post-horses with fatigue one day, they came alive 
the next morning,"" and really ours achieved 
wonders yesterday, though I forgot to ask whe- 
ther to-day they had been rescuscitated or not. 
When we were about to proceed, under a 
brilliant sunshine, towards Darnaway Castle, no- 
tice was brought, that during the late hurricane, 
so many trees had been blown down across the 
new approach, the road was impassable. This 
threatened a complete discomfiture, but fortu- 
nately we were driven by an old experienced 
post-boy — drivers remain always boys — who had 
plied backwards and forwards here during thirty 
years. He took us towards a gate, flanked by 
a large arbitrary ticket, forbidding all access 
for carriages in that direction, but he pointed 
at it contemptuously with the end of his whip, 
saying, in a triumphant tone, " We'll get 
through for a' that!" Accordingly our daring 
wheels rolled on uninterruptedly, and the very 
difficulties added to my enjoyment on finally 
succeeding. The park scenery is here magnifi- 
cent — such immeasurable extent, and such an 
unbounded profusion of trees, though none are 
of very pre-eminent size, and is framed in by a 



DARNAWAY CASTLE. 183 

great fir forest, by the ocean, and by the distant 
mountains of Sutherland and Caithness. 

Lord Moray's family motto is a key to all re- 
ligion, "Salvation through Christ the Redeemer;" 
and it is a remarkable circumstance, that the 
late earl had his coffin prepared, and constantly 
kept in his bed-room, during many years pre- 
vious to his death, which must certainly have 
acted as a perpetual admonition, though one of 
the greatest mysteries in our nature is, the im- 
possibility, almost, of realizing that we are our- 
selves to die, even though we make it our daily 
duty to reflect on it and to be ready. It seems 
easily said, and frequently talked of, that death 
is inevitable, but to feel the actual consciousness 
that this busy world shall go on as busily for 
ages after we are buried, as it did for the ages 
before we were born — that our bodies shall be 
imprisoned for centuries, perhaps, in dark and 
dreary separation from the soul, and that our 
spirits, in the meantime, shall awake to instant 
consciousness, amidst a scene unutterably won- 
derful, where we must for ever and ever exist — 
all this bursts upon our thoughts occasionally, 
with that awe and astonishment which it is fitted 



184 DARN A WAY CASTLE. 

to create, but amidst the varied occupations of 
life, how often it seems as new and surprising in 
all its solemn reality, as if we had never before 
imagined that death could be to us individually, 
as real as it has been to others, and that we are 
hurrying along on the irresistible tide which shall 
plunge us into eternity. 

Darnaway Castle is about thirty years of age, 
and no great beauty in external aspect. Though 
built of the very finest freestone, in a situation 
exceedingly magnificent, yet taking it as a house, 
this large pile of building is more handsome than 
beautiful. The front is Grecian, the ornaments 
over the windows Gothic, and the turrets are 
like eau-de-Cologne bottles. The point of chief 
interest at Darnaway Castle is Eandolph's Hall, 
built by the celebrated nephew of Robert Bruce, 
a fine baronial apartment five centuries old, in 
magnificent proportion, being more than a hun- 
dred feet long. It is canopied thirty feet high 
by an arched roof of oak, like that of West- 
minster Hall, perfectly blackened by time, and it 
is floored with stone flags. The internal ap- 
pearance resembles that of a fine old parish 
church without pews, and the only seats consist 



DARN AW AY CASTLE. 185 

of some very antique benches, with richly carved 
sides, and various extraordinary oak chairs, all 
of different shapes, and carved in a variety of 
whimsical patterns. "These seats were assuredly 
used before the word " comfort" had been in- 
vented. If such chairs were still in universal 
fashion, fewer country gentlemen would become 
sleepy and apopletic after dinner, as, instead of 
spring cushions, the very seats are elaborately 
carved, and looked by no means inviting to sit 
upon. 

Lord Randolph's table is also in a very unso- 
phisticated style, being nearly as it came origi- 
nally from the neighbouring forest, and every- 
thing within this primitive old hall is formed of 
these two materials, wood and stone. Most un- 
fortunately the architect who spoiled the new 
house, thought it necessary to spoil the old one 
also, and he has exhibited his taste by moderniz- 
ing the windows into something very like those 
of a dissenting chapel, and, dreadful to relate, 
the grand sweep of an arch, which once formed 
the chimney, and where a carriage might almost 
have been turned round, is now lowered and 
narrowed, so that an ox would find some diffi- 



186 DARNAWAY CASTLE. 

culty in being roasted whole there. Very few 
architects are fit to be trusted in an ancient 
house, for the new parts too often say no to the 
antiquity of the old. A painter might as well 
have attempted to touch up a Raphael, as a 
modern builder to improve Randolph's Hall, but 
builders all run mad whenever they get into an 
old house, and either knock down, mutilate, or 
disfigure it. 

The ancestors at Darnaway Castle have a more 
aristocratic air than in most other places, all 
having sat, apparently, to the best artists, in the 
full dress trappings of their rank and station, 
stars,'ribbons, robes, and garters, looking " every 
inch a peer."" Some of the ladies wore large 
elaborate ruffs, so white and stiff, you might 
have fancied their heads were placed on silver 
salvers, and one collar, in particular, we noticed, 
which a modern milliner might have despaired 
of imitating, while the lady's face who wore it, 
had faded so much, that she seemed sitting in a 
fainting fit. 

The most curious portrait of all was Queen 
Mary, disguised, by way of a frolic, in boy's 
clothes ! She wore long scarlet stockings, black 



DARNAWAY CASTLE. 187 

velvet coat, black kilt, white sleeves, and such a 
ruff! Her Majesty was looking as grave and 
serious upon this extraordinary piece of jocula- 
rity, as if she had been receiving the reproof 
she merited from John Knox. 

We ended our inspection of Darnaway Castle 
as usual on the roof, which displays a perfect 
map of Scotland, from the best authorities. I 
dare not guess how many counties we saw at 
once, including fifty miles of hilly coast, a world 
of wood extending twenty miles, the sea, and a 
circle of snow-speckled mountains. On an emi- 
nence like this, we ought to borrow the eyes of 
an eagle. 

A very celebrated and beautiful heronry be- 
longs to Lord Moray near this, on the Findhorn, 
and when I stood upon the towering pinnacles, 
two hundred feet high, from which the birds may 
be watched to most advantage, the river, rocks, 
and wood, seemed an exact counterpart of 
WyndclifF on the Wye, quite magnificently ro- 
mantic. A shouted and clapped his hands, 

after which more than a hundred herons took 
wing, and soared through the air at so slow and 
dignified a rate, that they might easily have been 



188 ALTYRE. 

shot, though herons are so tenacious of life, that 
they have generally to be fired at twice, or even 
oftener. After being wounded, these birds are 
very unsafe to deal with, because they fly at a 
sportsman with fury, endeavouring to peck out 
his eyes, and their strength is considerable, as a 
heron can carry with ease to his nest, a fish, 
weighing upwards of a pound. Each nest seem- 
ed almost large enough to hold a moderate sized 
man, and I counted above twenty nests in one 
elm, which must be apt to break down the 
branches, some of which are so festooned with 
them, that you might fancy a fishing-net had 
been suspended over all the trees. The whole 
colony interested me extremely, and I felt quite 

sorry when A came up at last, like one of 

the London police, desiring me to " move on." 

Our next step was through a scene of almost 
unearthly beauty, to Altyre, the most lovely 
and loveable place you can conceive, belonging 
to Sir William Gumming Gordon, chief of the 
clan Gumming, and representative of the old 
Lords of Badenoch. The house is a perfect 
cluster of arbours and green-houses, apparently 
meant for the muses and graces, for pleasure, 



ALTYRE. 189 

c;a} oty, and romance, but never intended for the 
mere vulgar, ordinary purposes of life. Within, 
without, and around, you see nothing but flowers 
rushing in at every window, and besetting all 
the doors. This is the court of Flora herself, 
and you would suppose we had come for a hor- 
ticultural show! 

The approach commences through a dark fir- 
wood, springing up amidst purple heath ; and 
gradually as we advanced, the grounds became 
enriched with evergreens, varied by forest trees, 
and bordered with turf round the house. The 
green lawn is like Genoa velvet, studded with 
fuschias, geraniums, carnations, every flower, in 
short, that has a name, overshadowed by grace- 
ful walnut trees, and the entrance hall emits 
the fragrance and atmosphere of a conservatory. 
Your friend, who said she could not sleep for 
three nights after seeing a better garden than 
her own, would never have closed an eye had 
she visited at Altyre. What do the quakers 
think of Nature for dressing in such gaudy 
colours ? But, as Dr. Johnson says, " a man 
who is unfit for a better world in a blue coat, is 
not very likely to go there in a gray." It is a 



190 ALTYRE. 

perpetual miracle certainly, to see the dark, 
dingy earth, hourly producing those brilliant 
and fragrant blossoms with which such a scene 
is decorated, like our own barren minds, in 
which there is no good by nature, and which 
require the seed to be sown in them, and the 
sunshine of heaven to nourish those flowers of 
excellence, and those fruits of holiness, which 
can alone render them lovely or attractive. 

In the garden of Eden, probably, the flowers 
never would have faded, but they sufffer the pe- 
nalty, like all creation, of our frailty and guilt. 
It is very remarkable, that no flower is perfectly 
black ! they are the toys and gems of nature, 
given as an innocent recreation, suited to every 
age and every rank, equally calculated for our 
seasons of joy or of sorrow — of sickness or of 
health. Though the moral lesson that they 
teach, speaks of short-lived prosperity, decay, 
and death, for truly " the loveliest things on 
earth are those that soonest fade away ;" yet 
these touching recollections are brought to 
mind under an aspect of beauty and cheerful- 
ness, calculated to testify with how much 
bounty and goodness the pleasures of life are 



ALTYRE. 191 

sent to alleviate its sorrows. Those who find 
the thorns of life unembellished by its flowers, 
may generally blame themselves for seeking in 
the artificial dissipations of the world, what can 
be found only in those natural enjoyments pro- 
vided for us by our wise and beneficent Creator. 
Moral writers have often remarked, that the 
gay and transient flowers are scattered on the 
world's surface, while the more precious and 
durable metals must be laboriously dug for ; but 
while the deepest mines should be explored, the 
lovely blossoms need not be neglected, and I 
never enjoy a flower-garden like this, without 
feeling convinced it affords one of the few 
amusements of which it would be impossible to 
tire. The bee sipping its draught in every 
flower, scarcely obeys the instinct of nature 
more naturally than we do when inhaling their 
fragrance, and admiring their lovely forms ; and 
the Bible repeatedly directs our devout atten- 
tion to flowers. How truly may we say, when 
contemplating a richly decorated garden, " Solo- 
mon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one 
of these." 



192 ALTYRE. 

*' How happily, how happily the flowers die away ! 
Oh ! could we but return to earth as easily as they ; 
Just live a life of sunshine, of innocence, and bloom, 
Then drop without decrepitude or pain into the tomb." 

This busy day seemed a fortnight long, we 
said, did, and saw so much. I pity everybody 
who has not seen Altyre, and was shocked to 
hear that a situation has been fixed on for a 
new house ; but if the old one be deserted, the 
Queen of the Fairies will certainly take posses- 
sion, as it seems already fitted up on purpose 
for her summer residence. 

We dined with the Miss Cummings at Moy 
House, where the old garden enchanted me, 
being ornamented with the finest " gean^'' alias 
wild cherry, trees in Scotland, which had 
attained the size of respectable forest trees, and 
were bending beneath the weight of their fruit ; 
and here, during last summer, by no means 
commendable for being either warm or dry, 
peaches ripened in abundance on the open, un- 
flued wall ! The gardener at Moy gained a 
prize this season for that curious plant, the 
Hoya Carnosa, the large clustering flowers of 



MOY HOUSE. 193' 

which resemble a ready made honeycomb, with 
a drop of honey hanging from each petal, the 
whole being modelled in a substance so exactly 
resembling wax, that you might almost make it 
into candles. The bees would give over work- 
ing if they saw this flower, and no plant was 
ever more easily propagated, seeing that a single 
green leaf, carelessly stuck in the ground, will 
take root, and become fit for a horticultural 
show before the following year. 

Moy House belonged, in the previous genera- 
tion, to an old humourist, who became so indig- 
nant at his next heir, Mr. Grant, then of Red 
Castle, for calling on him one day, in a carriage 
and four, that he altered his will, bequeathing 
his property to a perfectly different Mr. Grant, 
who was probably satisfied with a chaise and 
pair. We heard of a more prudent and suc- 
cessful heir presumptive elsewhere, who always 
left his equipage at the neighbouring inn, put 
on a shabby coat, and walked, stick in hand, to 
the house, a plan much to be recommended 
where an eccentric old gentleman is in question. 
^Vills and marriages are both generally so very 



194 MOY HOUSE. 

whimsical and unaccountable, that I have ceased 
to wonder at either ; and if ever wealthy old 
people are to exhibit caprice and bad feeling, it 
seems chiefly reserved for the last will. There 
must be a great degree of infidelity in those 
who leave behind them a testament which they 
would be ashamed while alive, that the world 
should see, not apparently reflecting, that when 
this posthumous deed is read, the testator shall 
be already in the presence of a Holy God, who 
condemns every angry feeling, and who will 
make us responsible for the conscientious dis- 
posal of all we have, and all we leave behind. 

A gentleman who had been whistling by the 
fireside for an hour one day, beside a numerous 
circle of visitors, at last exclaimed, as if bring- 
ing forth the result of his meditations, " I 
wonder no body ever left me any money ! " This 
is a subject of wonder often, I dare say, to others 
who say less about it, but, like all earthly plea- 
sures, even a legacy has its drawbacks, as it im- 
plies the loss of a friend whose attachment was 
far more precious, and, therefore, even for the 
most mercenary this is the last way in wliich one 



MOY HOUSE. 195 

could desire to grow rich. When a lady re- 
marked once, what a pleasure it would be, suc- 
ceeding unexpectedly to some rich relation whom 
you did not care for, another very coolly repUed, 
" Or to one you do care for ! it would be all one 
in a month ! look at the sons and brothers who 
inherit estates !" It certainly would be curious 
if, by magical agency, the hue of people's dress 
could become in exact accordance with the hue 
of their spirits ! Then it would be seen that 
those who seem gay, cheerful, and reckless, are 
frequently suffering under the darkest despond- 
ency, while in the case of successions it would 
often become obvious that there had been more 
bombazine and crape than real sorrow ; but I 
wish the old proprietor of Moy had seen us arrive 
in our humble chaise, and bequeathed me this 
smiling place, so well-wooded, so highly cultivat- 
ed, and altogether so enjoyable. Perhaps what 
contributed most of all to make me like this 
house might be, the pleasant circle within doors, 
which would make any residence delightful ; but 
the curtain has dropped over it, and the sunshine 
of that evening must live only in my memory, 
where it will always remain as a pleasing remem- 



196 MOY HOUSE. 

brance. The motto of our family. " J'aime le 
raellieur,*'' is certainly my case in respect to the 
society we meet, and we have hitherto been 
very fortunate. A coachmaker once, by mis- 
take, altered, most distressingly, the meaning of 
these words on our shield, by substituting an in- 
scription with which our carriage drove about 
for several years, but I believe the poor man 
did not really mean any jest when he painted it 
" Jamais le mellieur !" 

I remain. 

For self and partner, 

Yours. 



197 



MORAYSHIRE. 



The braes ascend like lofty wa's. 
The foamin' stream deep roaring fa's 
O'erhung wi' fragrant spreading shaws. 

BUKNS. 



My dear Cousin, — As there are said to be fif- 
teen days more of summer in Morayshire, than 
in any other part of Scotland, we seem to have 
obtained a lease of them all at once ! The 
weather has been most enchanting lately, and is 
altogether doing the civil thing by us, being ex- 
actly such as we require for perfect happiness. 
I remember the time, when you and I used to 
wish the weather of the whole world might be 
regulated so as to suit our one solitary geranium 
in a flower-pot ; and how apt I am still to think, 
if the fields be burned as dry and brown as a 



198 MORAYSHIRE. 

slice of toast, that it matters little, provided ray 
own bonnet escape a shower, though, I daresay, 
the farmers would vote me a new one, rather 
than do without rain another day. It is lucky 
we are not allowed a voice on the subject, for 
even sunshine itself might be indulged in to ex- 
cess. 

We have this day enjoyed, at Reluglas, the 
highest perfection of glen scenery, quite an exag- 
geration of Roslin, formerly belonging to one of 
our leading Whig orators, and the author of seve- 
ral very popular works, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, 
but recently purchased by Mr. M'Killigan, a 
native of this neighbourhood. We were told, that 
from his earliest years, he had almost hopelessly 
desired to possess this exquisite place, and after 
realizing an adequate sum, during one successful 
voyage to China, by a happy coincidence he re- 
turned at the very time it was sold, and realized 
his juvenile castle in the air. Who would not 
go to China to-morrow for so delightful a result i 
It is seldom men gain so precisely the point they 
aim at, and I hope the new proprietor may 
long continue to enjoy it as he does now, and to 
embellish the place as tastefully as he has begun. 



RELUGtAS. 199 

Tlie grounds are covered with a perfect eruption 
of roses, besides being studded over with rare 
plants of great value, and of most uncommon as- 
pect, imported by Mr. M'Killigan himself. The 
Horticultural Society of London, when vainly 
trying to naturalize the beautiful variegated 
azalia, of which we saw several plants quite at 
home here, expended no less than L.800, while 
Mr. Wright, a nurseryman, paid L.lOO for one 
specimen, and has since realized L.IOOO by pro- 
pagating and selling it. 

The interior of this house is beautifully fitted 
up with English comfort and Asiatic decorations, 
but the collection of corals alone might occupy 
agreeably more hours than we could spend on 
the entire place. They resemble the minutest 
carvings in ivory, some representing a little fo- 
rest of plants, while others were little circular 
worlds, formed by a combination among myriads 
of living atoms, which thus raise habitations for 
themselves, and increase their number, till at last 
they gradually expand to such a bulk, that they 
become islands large enough for man himself to 
exist on ! What will not perseverance do ! One 
coral island, examined by Captain Beechy, was 



200 RELUaiAS. 

thirty miles in diameter, and many of the South 
Sea islands began their existence in the world on 
a scale not larger than those masses of coral 
which we weighed in our hands. What a lesson 
this might be on the importance of little things ! 
drops make the ocean, moments make the year, 
and trifles life. 

At Reluglas, the small remains of an ancient 
vitrified fort, served as a treat to antiquaries for- 
meily, but the gardener once, in a fit of ingenuity, 
thought he could improve this old relic by build- 
ing a massy wall round the spot, over which he 
scattered a top-dressing of the vitrified material, 
looking like fragments of broken bottles, and 
now the whole is metamorphosed into a perfect 
deformity. 

Travellers who merely skirt along the high- 
roads of Scotland, can form no conception how 
much they miss by not tracing up such glens as 
those of the Findhorn and Divie, bounded by 
banks, hills, forests, and heath- covered moun- 
tains, without one barren spot to disfigure the 
landscape. The whole scene is enlivened too, by 
places which are the very romance of Highland 
residences, every one fit to form the frontispiece 



EELUGLAS. 201 

to any poem you ever read. We mjght imagine 
the house of Reluglas had wandered over from 
Switzerland, with its overhanging roof, like a 
slouched hat, and its deep casements, trimmed 
with flowers, while the elegant mansion of Dun- 
phail, built on a plan by Playfair, seems inside 
and out as if it were imported ready-made from 
Italy. Do you remember our being diverted 
once at a lady who had spent a summer at 
Naples, and came home, completely Italianized, 
saying to you at dinner, soon afterwards, in a 
tone of disgust, " Fancy me with my Itahan ap- 
petite, set down to roast beef !"" But here she 
might have lived in happy contentment, sur- 
rounded by books, pictures, ornaments, every- 
thing, — even the very sky, Italian. 

Nothing is more surprising, in these glens, 
than to observe the clever way in which trees 
contrive to root themselves on stones, when 
they have literally nothing but the rifted rocks 
to hold by, and to live upon. The fibres are at 
first no larger than bits of thread, penetrating 
every crevice, and gradually enlarging into 
cables, till at length they become strong enough 
to elbow the very rocks from their stations. 



202 DUNPHAIL. 

Many largQ blocks of stone have thus been 
precipitated downwards, while the trees, clasp- 
ing and riveting their arras around the remain- 
ing rocks, look down into the abyss beneath, 
and cling to their places with the tenacity of a 
statesman. 

The grounds at Dunphail are of a softer and 
more English character than those of Eeluglas ; 
the verdant hills, opening with a graceful sweep 
on each side, and charmingly varied by a crowd 
of distant foliage, while near the house we ad- 
mired groups of prodigious forest trees, as round 
and graceful as ostrich feathers. When the 
wind blew over their lofty tops, and bent them 
towards the earth, I could not but think, how 
apt an emblem they exhibit of our own minds, 
so easily agitated, so soon almost prostrated 
by the sweeping blast of sorrow or misfortune, 
yet so speedily restored again to that compara- 
tive rest and peace which are habitual to those 
who can rightly apply that sacred text, " The 
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one 
that is born of the Spirit."" 



DUNPHAIL. 203 

The river here is truly enchanting, and we 
saw from the house of Dunphail, a beautifully 
situated ruinous castle, surrounded by a deep 
ravine, to which belongs a fine old tradition, 
worth its weight in gold. The story has been 
potted and preserved so long, that you must 
try a taste of it now ; and I liked beyond mea- 
sure thus to read the book of history, in folio, 
by standing on the very spot where all its events 
actually occurred, and almost beholding the 
very individuals living, acting, and dying, an 
they did many centuries ago. I often think, 
what an extraordinary picture gallery it would 
make, if a representation were supernaturally to 
appear on the silent walls of every old building, 
shewing the strange scenes they have witnessed 
since the hour of their being built. The very 
rooms we ourselves daily inhabit, could testify 
of joys and sorrows, now for ever forgotten, 
which once agitated the hearts of many lying 
at rest in the tomb ; and those walls which 
have echoed the laughter or the grief of those 
who are no more, and of those who yet survive, 
will hereafter be the property of unborn genera- 



204 DUNPHAIL. 

tions, to whom our existence will be a tale of 
old times. 

These thoughts on our own unconsciousness 
of what once passed within the walls around us, 
were particularly impressed upon me some years 
ago, when we heard that a family who had 
hired a country residence near Edinburgh, where 
they enjoyed many cheerful hours round the 
fireside, having occasion once to lift the draw- 
ing-room hearth-stone, were startled and shock- 
ed to find, immediately underneath, the ghastly 
spectacle of a skeleton in chains ! This house 
had belonged to Chesely of Dairy, who was 
hanged for assassinating Lockhart of Oarnwath, 
the president of the Court of Session, and the 
criminars own family having stolen the body off 
the gallows, had privately buried it there. So 
frightful a spectacle was like some apparition 
from another world ; but nothing so terrifying 
appeared in the old castle of Dunphail, formerly 
the scene of many bold and daring actions. 

The Cummings were among the greatest and 
bravest of all the Highland clans ; and King 
Robert Bruce, who wished to exterminate them, 



DUN PH AIL. 205 

created Randolph, his own nephew, Earl of 
Moray, and being in a generous mood, granted 
him this estate. Old Gumming of Dunphail, 
not seeing the eligibility of that arrangement, 
resisted the transfer, and sustained a long siege 
within this castle. Meantime his son, Alister 
Bane, a young man of extraordinary enterprise 
and courage, preserved the famishing garrison 
alive, by seizing opportunities occasionally to 
throw in sacks of oatmeal across a deep fissure 
in the rocks which we were shewn. The enemy 
vainly endeavoured to detect the place of his 
concealment, until they brought a bloodhound 
to the spot, which tracked him through the 
woods. Here we traced every step of the 
ravine ourselves, till we reached the fatal cave 
where he was overtaken, the entrance being no 
larger than that of a dog kennel, and there his 
enemies lighted a fire that he might be smoked 
to death. The young hero, seeing his fate ine- 
vitable, attempted to come forth, saying, " Let 
me out to die hke a Gumming, sword in hand !" 
But Lord Randolph cruelly thrust him back, 
and replied, " No ! die like a wolf as you 
are i 



206 DUNPHAIL. 

The head of Alister Bane was cut oft', and 
carried to a rock opposite, where old Gumming 
stood, expecting the arrival of his son with pro- 
visions, and there the enemy threw it at his feet, 
calling out, in an insulting tone, " Here's beef 
for your bannocks !" The wretched father re- 
cognised his son, and exclaimed, in an agony of 
rage and grief, " This is a bone to pick that 
you shall rue !" Discouraged, however, and sub- 
dued by so frightful a calamity, the old man 
struggled no longer, but yielded to his fate, and 
was put to death, with his forty faithful clans- 
men. Their heads were stuck up in terrorem at 
Elgin, and their mutilated bodies thrust into a 
cairn near the spot where they fell, which was 
shown ever afterwards as " the tomb of the head- 
less Cummings." A few years since, the parish 
clergyman caused the skeletons to be dug up, 
and carefully buried in a distant church-yard, at 
the risk of destroying the evidence of this melan- 
choly tale. Not a single skull was found on that 
occasion, and I am always glad when proof can 
be brought, that tradition really has spoken the 
truth, though I cannot but wish that the mas- 
sacred clan had remonstrated as successfully 




DUNPHAIL. 207 

with their murderers, as the Baron of Leys, 
" My head is a thing I cannot well want." 

It is curious, that after a lapse of five hun- 
dred years, this beautiful estate has again re- 
turned to the rightful clan, while the names of 
both contending parties are now united in the 
present proprietor, Mr. Gumming Bruce. 

The same glen at Dunphail became afterwards 
celebrated as the refuge of a daring robber, 
whose well selected abode, in the cleft of the 
rock, we inspected ; and this valley is now in- 
habited by a couple of white fairies, who glide 
gracefully about at night among the planta- 
tions, and the belief of their existence diffused 
around the neighbourhood is more effectual than 
either man-traps or spring-guns for keeping oft' 
poachers. 

Strangers in this neighbourhood may be 
sometimes perplexed to hear how familiarly the 
inhabitants talk of what happened to themselves 
" before and after the flood ! " not perhaps re- 
collecting the extraordinary inundations in 
Morayshire eleven years ago, when houses, 
bridges, castles, villages, and inhabitants were 
all nearly swept from their foundations, and in- 



208 DUNPHAIL. 

volved in one common ruin. Many people wish 
to be envied for their good fortune, but if that 
be out of the question, then the next pleasure 
in life is to excite very great pity, and for that 
purpose a calamity like this ought to be made 
the most of. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's volume 
did wonders, and really plunged me into a per- 
fect cold bath when I read it ; but he has got 
into considerable disgrace with one family, for 
having rather spitefully under-stated their losses, 
and though he nearly drowned them all, it is by 
no means considered satisfactory. 

The scene at Dunphail on this occasion was 
described to me as being like a great shipwreck. 
The tumultuous Divie rushing like a wall of 
water down the glen, and sweeping away in its 
mad career bridges, mills, trees, cattle, and cot- 
tages, to the value of L.5000. The very house 
itself was besieged by the raging stream, and 
though its foundation is high and rocky, the in- 
habitants were advised to hasten out for safety, 
which they all did with the excepti(m of a 
Highland dairy-maid, who insisted with great 
courage on remaining, because it is considered 



DUNPHAIL. 209 

" unlucky" to desert a house entirely. No per- 
suasion could induce her to move, so she was 
forcibly ejected, and the proprietor himself re- 
mained alone, to garrison the walls and to watch 
over the fate of his beautiful residence. The 
water rose higher and higher, the night had 
closed in darkness, and the rock was crumbling 
fast away to within a few feet of the corner wall, 
when suddenly a distant bank broke down on 
an opposite side of the stream, the current was 
thus unexpectedly drained off, and the half- 
drowned house has now been restored by the 
Humane Society to all its former life and loveli- 
ness. At Ballindalloch, on the confluence of the 
Avon and Spey, Sir George Macpherson Grant 
found a carpet of gravel laid down in his dining- 
room, and Spey salmon actually swimming about 
alive in the kitchen ! In one village all the in- 
habitants had to save themselves on rafts, and 
in many farms the soil and crops sailed away, 
like floating islands, to the ocean, which also re- 
ceived on that day a valuable and unexpected 
cargo of hay-ricks, sheep, chairs, eight- day 
clocks, tables, and every variety of household 



210 BALGOWNIE. 

furniture, moveables and fixtures. Nothing was 
half so remarkable in this extraordinary cala- 
mity, as the courageous activity with which the 
bold Highlanders met their misfortune, testify- 
ing a heroic degree of Christian resignation 
amidst unexpected ruin, and even in some affect- 
ing instances encountering death itself. One 
poor man risked his life to regain his spectacles, 
" because without them he could not read his 
Bible !" The brave old bridge of Balgownie, on 
the Don, five hundred years old, put all younger 
structures to shame, being almost the only one 
that withstood the shock. It was built by 
Bishop Elphinstone, and endowed with a bene- 
faction of L.2 per annum, which has accumulat- 
ed, under the trusty management of the good 
magistrates at Aberdeen, to no less a sum than 
L.8000. I wish they would take your affairs 
and mine in trust also ! It is a curious High- 
land superstition, that friends or lovers who 
part on a bridge never meet again ! If my let- 
ter were to stop on the bridge of Balgownie you 
would probably never hear from me more, so I 
must add one little appendix to this subject. 



BALGOWNIE. 211 

The former proprietor of Eeluglas wishing very 
naturally to commemorate the wonderful height 
to which the Findhorn and Divie then rose, 
placed a stone at the proper place, with an in- 
scription to testify that there the two streams 
actually met, but a mischievous traveller lately 
rooted up the stone and carried it to a perfectly 
incredible eminence, where it now stands gravely 
informing us that here is the level to which the 
water rose. I make a point of believing every- 
thing, but was certainly rather astonished how 
a living being had escaped ! Since then, how- 
ever, that difficulty has been solved on the best 
authority, and the stone turns out to be some- 
what of the nature of a tomb stone, which is apt 
to exaggerate. 

People who journalize their travels generally 
become unsupportably dull, by attempting the 
sublime, but I have rather kept to the ridiculous 
on this occasion, though with a more ambitious 
pen the Morayshire floods could have been 
worked up to a perfect Niagara. Pray consider 
yourself as owing a visit to this neighbourhood 
until you have paid one, which will not be your 



212 • BALGOWNIE. 

last or only descent on a county so truly inter- 
esting, with its proud-looking castles, its cot- 
tages of gentility, and all the triumphs of nature 
and of art, with which it is adorned. As the 
old song says, " FU make you be fain to follow 
me !" 



213 



CASTLE GRANT. 



There needs na' be sae great a phrase 
WV droning dull Italian lays ; 
I wad na gi'e our ain strathspeys 

For half a hundred score o' 'em. 

Burns. 



My dear Cousin, — Your life seems as uniform 
at present as the pendulum of a clock, but from 
your description it must be nearly as useful. 
In fact, without meaning to be vain, I am like 
the minute handle making a complete circle, du- 
ring the time you take to revolve an inch or two, 
though the chief interest of my movements 
arises from knowing that you are behind the 
scenes to partake of them. 

We this day diverged twenty miles off our 
road, to inspect that strange old place. Castle 
Grant, belonging to the Earl of Seafield ; a pro- 



214 CASTLE GRANT. 

digious chieftain-like edifice, surrounded by grim- 
looking mountains, and grim-looking fir trees, 
and filled with grim-looking ancestors. Truly 
as " the dark building o'er the valley frownM," 
it looked like the stronghold of some great free- 
booter, which you might feel terrified to ap- 
proach after dark. Mrs. Radcliffe would have 
been quite at home here, and I could write a 
melo-drama myself on the spot; " Enter Bu- 
dolpho^ cautiously^ with pistols — HarlclV' 
now fancy the rest, one or two murders, an ap- 
parition, plenty of poison, and several execu- 
tions. 

We were hurrying along the high-road to take 
a glance at this ancient fossil of a castle, when 
a respectable looking old man stopped us, touch- 
ed his bonnet with a soldier-like air, and said to 

A , in a most deferential manner, " Would 

you be offended. Sir, if I were speaking to 
you?" 

We both looked extremely encouraging, so 
he added in a still more earnest voice, " I have 
served in the four quarters of the globe, sir ! at 
St. Helena, St. Jago, South America, Corunna, 
and the West Indies!" 



CASTLE GRANT. 215 

My purse now began to quiver in ray reticule, 
thinking of course this was a case of begging, 
and I even settled that it would be impossible 
to get off respectably under a shilling, when he 
added, " I was wishing to ask a small favour of 
you, sir ! my cottage is only a step off. If you 
and the lady will come in to take a taste of 
whisky and a biscuit, that would be a great ho- 
nour to the like of me. No offence, sir, but it 
is our way in the Highlands !" 

We thanked him cordially, though I could 
not resist a gentle hint against what the High- 
landers call " a spark of whisky," adding a short 
panegyric on teetotalism, but he said in reply, 
" It would be a disgrace to any Macintosh, 
Ma'am, who could not take a glass or two with- 
out being the worse." I suppose he was like 
the witness in court, who said he had never seen 
liis friend the worse of drink, but often the bet- 
ter of it. You have heard of the MP. who, 
some years ago, inadvertently astonished the 
House of Commons, by beginning his speech 
against the flogging of soldiers for intoxication, 

by saying, " Mr. Speaker ! you get drunk, 

I get drunk, we all get drunk ! " 



216 CASTLE GRANT. 

The cottage pointed out by our old soldier 
was very neat, but by no means so near as he 
hospitably wished us to think, therefore, with a 
civil apology, on account of being limited in our 
allowance of time, we politely suggested that he 
might accompany us along the approach to show 
the way, which he very obligingly did, and more- 
over pointed out some of the battle-fields and 
hills, which otherwise we should not have dis- 
covered. That of Cromdale interested us espe- 
cially, where the cause of James II. received its 
final blow in Scotland, and the old soldier in- 
formed us, that there the bones had lately been 
dug up of " a person of respectability." How 
the deceased's respectability had been ascertain- 
ed we did not hear. 

A was so much pleased by the communi- 
cativeness and simplicity of our military volun- 
teer, that when taking leave he offered him a 
handsome donation, but the old soldier drew 
back, and actually swore a solemn oath on the 
spot, that nothing could induce him to accept it, 
not being apparently of so persuadable a nature 
on this score as the pew-opener at your church, 
who is forbid to accept any douceur from stran- 



CASTLE GRANT. 217 

gers, but always whispers when declining it, that 
they may place what they please under the seat, 
\\here she "vvill find it next morning. 

What prodigious entertainment travellers 
lo.«e, who do not converse frankly and kindly 
with the country people! Our old cicerone 
seemed as fond of Castle Grant as if it had 
been his own, and said with a look of delighted 
anticipation, " You'll see some things to-day, 
Ma'am, that you little expect! The armoury 
is a grand place! you'll be surprised!!" 

In the approach, we were stopped by a poor 
maniac, who fancies herself owner of this pro- 
perty, and walked with great dignity, holding 
up her draggled petticoats, and calling herself 
" Lady Watson!" After a short parley, she 
condescended to let us proceed; and I could not 
but think how fortunate it is, when madness 
is not of a melancholy kind, for this pitiable 
being enjoyed a sort of happiness nearly allied 
to that of persons who habitually build castles in 
the air, but while we are deeply responsible for 
any such voluntary waste of intellect. Lady Wat- 
son may continue blamelessly to enjoy her ima- 
ginary consequence, and to confer her imagi- 



218 CASTLE GRANT. 

nary favours, unless it be true, as a French au- 
thor once maintained, that men are answerable 
even for any sin they may fancy themselves com- 
mitting in a dream. 

An American would say, that we could not ea- 
sily " ditto" Castle Grant ! I have seldom seen a 
more striking coup cVoeil than this very stern- 
looking old place, though the ancient towers have 
been cruelly injured by a modern addition, like a 
cotton manufactory, the blame of which lies upon 
Adams. The venerable antique tower, rising 
118 steps from the ground, looks down with 
solemn contempt on this vulgar excrescence, 
and seems heartily ashamed of the connec- 
tion. 

We laboriously ascended, to enjoy from our 
usual station on the roof, a grand wild view 
of the Grant country, Cairngorum studded with 
snow, the frowning heights of Ben Nevis, chal- 
lenging the very clouds, and endless plantations 
of sombre fir trees, so close and thick, they 
seemed as if we might walk on their tops. I 
have a hearty respect for those primitive old 
forests which planted and raised themselves from 
nothing ! 



CASTLE GRANT. 219 

The furniture here, which I expected to find 
ahnost coeval with the forests, is, on the con- 
trary, quite gay and modern ; chairs which run 
so lightly along the floor, they might be en- 
tered for the St. Leger, and sofas in the very 
newest extreme of luxury and taste. The an- 
cestors here are worth travelling any distance to 
visit. In this very long line, it is amusing to 
trace a family likeness among so many succes- 
sive generations, all remarkably handsome, while 
we perceived a gradual modernizing of dress and 
attitude. None were so beautiful, however, as 
the young heiress of Rossdhu, Miss Colquhoun, 
painted by Ramsay, in a rich white satin dress, 
and carrying a wreath of flowers. She was 
forcibly carried ofl" by a second son of this fa- 
mily, who proved, when on trial for the ofifence, 
that the lady sat in front on the horse, and must 
therefore have run off with him ! This plea being- 
considered satisfactory, the gentleman was ac- 
(juitted, and became afterwards laird of Grant, 
on which his second son succeeded to the beauti- 
ful and extensive domain of Rossdhu on Loch Lo- 
mond. We saw here a miniature portrait includ- 
injr the three individuals who descended from that 



220 CASTLE GRANT. 

marriage, Sir Ludovic Grant, Sir James Colqu- 
lioun, and Colonel Colqulioun, all dressed exceed- 
ingly fine, and looking very much bored, as if 
they were listening to some very prosing talker. 

Here we beheld about the twentieth copy I 
have observed in Morayshire of the same paint- 
ing. At Brodie, Gordon Castle, Dunphail, Al- 
tyre, Castle Grant, and probably every other 
house I did not visit, there is a picture of the 
Sybil, which, as you were once in this county, 
you must of course recollect, with a pen in her 
hand, a turban on her head, and her eyes turned 
up to the ceiling, exactly as we all do, when 
much at a^ loss for an idea. 

The Seafield family attached themselves appa- 
rently, in a most amiable degree, to every per- 
son in the remotest manner connected with 
them, and here we saw five or six portraits, in 
full clerical costume, of the various clergymen 
they Avere accustomed to hear, the family piper 
full-length, and even the old hen-wife in a kit- 
kat ! Nothing, however, in the way of painting, 
ever amused me so much, as the good humoured 
whim of an old Laird of Grant, who brought to 
the castle an artist named Waitt, and caused 



CASTLE GRANT. 221 

about thirty portraits to be done, exhibiting 
the formidable likeness of each gentleman be- 
longing to his clan. It was a fine, chieftain-like 
idea, and has been most comically executed ! 
You never saw so fierce looking a collection ! 
The Kings of Scotland at Holyrood are nothing 
to it ! ! 

If any family of Grant wishes for an ancestor, 
he has only to come here and make a choice ! 

A took down a memorandum of all their 

extraordinary designations, but I only remem- 
ber Grant of Ballindalloch, and Grant of Tul- 
lochgorum, well known for the reel which goes 
by his name, and even now he looks quite ready 
to start from his frame, and set off to the piper 
opposite. In the centre of all, hangs the patri- 
arch of the clan, exhibiting a most venerable 
aspect, and wearing a profusion of gray hair, 
like white cotton. Unluckily there are no Mrs. 
Grants ! I should have liked beyond measure 
to see the ladies who matched such gentlemen ! 
the power of painting could no farther go ! 

An old Laird of Grant formerly despatched 
one of his clan to the Earl of Findlater with a 
present of chickens and venison, but the High- 



222 GRANTOWN. 

lander not being a good linguist, delivered his 
message in a most deferential manner as fol- 
lows : — " The Laird o' Grant's compliments to 
" the Laird o' Fin-laater, and sends him sick- 
" ness and vengeance. If he wants more he 
" can have them !" The two neighbouring 
families of Findlater, or Fin-de-la-ten-e, and 
Grant, are now merged into one, under the 
more modern title of the Earl of Seafield. 

Grantown is the most perfectly Highland 
village I have seen. Here the men all sport 
their clan tartans and kilts, while the young 
women wear a graceful plaid, and the snood in 
their hair, looking all neat, clean, and cheerful, 
" contented wi' little, and cantie wi' mair." 
Our old soldier spoke in raptures of the chiefs 
family, saying, " they never wish to change 
tenants, and we never wish to change land- 
lords." Undoubtedly it might surprise a stran- 
ger, seeing no great manufactories in the village, 
to observe, nevertheless, an appearance of almost 
unaccountable prosperity. The granite houses, 
so nearly similar in age and size, they seem all to 
have been built at once, the streets spacious, and 
everything denoting comfort and competence ; 



BALVENY CASTLE. 223 

but when we heard how liberally and judiciously 
the very poorest tenants on this estate are at- 
tended to and watched over, my perplexity on 
this subject was ended, and I could wonder no 
longer, that the good old times are still extant 
here, of boundless attachment to the " reigning 
family." 

We ought certainly now to have danced down 
the glen of Strathspey, for we proceeded through 
that charming valley, passing many fine seats in 
the Grant country, among which Ballindalloch, 
belonging to Sir George Macpherson Grant, is 
one of the most ancient and beautiful, finely si- 
tuated, richly wooded, and exhibiting that air of 
indescribable cheerfulness and good order, which 
testifies the care of a resident proprietor. 

Balveny Castle is a considerable ruin which 
belonged to a celebrated heiress, " The fair maid 
of Galloway,"" who succeeded the Earls of Doug- 
las, and Dukes of Touraine, by the cruel slaugh- 
ter of her two young brothers, whom the Chan- 
cellor Crichton, without pity for their youth, the 
eldest being only eighteen, or any scruple on ac- 
count of having promised them protection, 
treacherously inveigled into Edinburgh Castle, 



224 BALVENY CASTLE. 

and beheaded. The young lady first bestowed 
herself and castle on the Earl of Douglas, her 
cousin, whom King James the Second stabbed 
in Stirling Castle, when he arrived there by invi- 
tation, bringing with him a safe conduct under 
the great seal. The disconsolate widow next 
married, by special dispensation, the brother and 
successor of her husband, who was forfeited soon 
after, and fled to England ; but not wishing to 
share his fortunes — or misfortunes — she got her 
second marriage annulled, and his Majesty gave 
her in marriage to his own half-brother, the Earl 
of AthoU, who probably rebuilt the Castle of 
Balveny, as the motto which he adopted is carved 
in immense letters over the massy iron gate. 
When King James the Second sent Lord Atholl 
against Macdonald, Earl of Ross, his parting 
benediction was given in these few words, which 
have ever since continued to be the family motto, 
" Forth fortune, and fill the fetters !" 

The estate of Balveny escaped after all, how- 
ever, from the descendants of this frequently 
married heiress, and went, by some odd mis- 
chance, to her husband's son by a subsequent 
marriage, and after remaining with the Earls of 



GLENLIVET. 225 

Atlioll during five generations, and meeting with 
various other vicissitudes, now belongs to the 
Earl of Fife. 

A few miles above Ballindalloch is the vale of 
Glenlivet, famous in modern times for its whisky, 
and in ancient times for its battle, generally 
known as the battle of Balrinnes, where the young- 
Earl of Argyll, though only in his eighteenth 
year, acted as generalissimo for the king, com- 
manding an army of 12,000 men, which was de- 
feated by Lord Huntly at the head of SCO 
horse. In those days, every commander carried 
a witch, or a professor of second- sight with him, 
as regularly as his ADC, and Argyll had been 
promised that, on the day after this battle, his 
harp should be played in Buchan, and the 
bagpipe at Huntly 's chief seat in Strathbogie, 
which prediction was certainly fulfilled to the 
ear, though not exactly as Argyll expected, for 
the notes were not those of triumph, and he was 
not there to enjoy the sound, having retreated to 
a distant refuge. 

A little farther up is the late Duke of Gordon's 
delightful shooting lodge of Glenfiddich, the well 
known head-quarters for deer-stalking. The 



226 GORDONSTON. 

late floods have rendered it almost unapproach- 
able for the last three miles, as the road has been 
washed away, and the river must be forded eleven 
or twelve times to reach the spot, but it is 
thought that the present noble proprietor pre- 
fers encountering these difficulties himself, rather 
than throw this preserve more open to idle tour- 
ists, like ourselves, who " frighten the deer," as 
it was objected to steam-boats on the Thames 
that they " frightened the fish." 

Between Elgin and its flourishing port Burgh- 
head, stands the large baronial house of Gordon- 
ston, well wooded, but otherwise in a featureless 
flat. It is a plain, square, town-like pile, now 
beginning to show symptoms of disconsolate 
neglect, since the Gordon baronets failed, and it 
fell to the Gumming family, who possess the far 
more captivating residence of Altyre, in the same 
county. Within this house is a subterranean 
cell, in which a peeress was formerly imprisoned 
by Sir Robert Gordon, that she might be induced 
to surrender her patrimonial rights, but the lady 
held out with great spirit, and was at last libe- 
rated triumphantly. This family of Gordon were 
all so clever, that they gained the reputation of 



ELCHIES. 227 

being, in several instances, wizards, and the prac- 
tice of witchcraft was kept up in Morayshire 
longer than in any other part of Scotland. Sir 
Robert Gordon, being the premier Baronet of 
Scotland, was very jealous on the score of pre- 
cedency, and having met once at dinner a neigh- 
bour recently promoted to an Irish peerage, who 
was smilingly taking his place first in the pro- 
cession down stairs, the tall gaunt Sir Robert 
stalked hastily after his Lordship, grasped his 
shoulder, and twirling him round, angrily ex- 
claimed, " Na ! na ! my Lord ! ye maun gang 
to Ireland for that !"" 

Near Elgin we passed the estate of Elchies, 
from which one of our Scotch judges formerly 
took his title. Nothing perplexes English 
strangers more in Scotland, than our bishops 
without mitres, and lords without coronets. I 
remember seeing a great genealogist, who met 
one of our fifteen judges at dinner, suffering 
agonies of perplexity on hearing a frequently re- 
peated title, the date and patent of which he 
could not call to mind, till at last he turned 

anxiously to Lord , who had observed his 

embarrassment, and said, in allusion to the num- 



228 ELGIN. 

ber of peers elected to Parliament, " Might 1 
ask, my Lord, if you are one of the sixteen?" 
" No,"" replied his Lordship with grave dignity, 
" I am one of the fifteen !"" The strangest choice 
of a designation I ever knew, was made by one of 
our judges, who called himself " Lord Unthank !"" 
Elgin is a beautifully varied little city of 
eccentric old houses, and charming new streets, 
built of a stone which surpasses all praise, being 
exactly of the hue that Cheltenham wishes to 
appear, a pale, delicate, nankeen colour, and the 
longer it is exposed the harder it becomes. This 
is more particularly to be admired in the grand 
old ruinous cathedral, commonly known as " the 
Lantern of the North,"" which looks so perfectly 
untarnished by time, that it seems more like a 
building about to be finished, than an aged ve- 
teran, whose work is done. The Bishop''s house, 
too, a few yards off, has considerable remains of 
grandeur. I was recently amused to hear, that 
the late Lord Dalhousie, not being able at once 
to understand the difference between St. Peter's 
and the Vatican, a friend made it plain by say- 
ing, " Why, my Lord, only recollect that St. 
Peter's is the kirk, and the Vatican the manse." 



ELGIN. 229 

At Elgin cathedral, the elaborate carvings 
have edges as sharp and distinct as the day they 
were chiselled, and nothing in sculpture can bo 
more beautiful than the arched door of entrance, 
with eight fine pillars, surmounted by wreaths 
of roses in full relief. The octagon chapter- 
house is also ornamented on the roof with a 
perfect garden of flowers turned into stone. 

The old guide here, a well known character, is 
commonly called " The Bishop of Moray." His 
enthusiasm respecting this noble specimen of 
sacred architecture renders him a desirable cice- 
rone through the old walls, which are in fully 
better repaif than himself, as he can scarcely 
totter along. The old man leaning on his oaken 
staff, feels an honest pride in boasting of the 
diligence with which he has cleaned and arranged 
the ruins, since he was appointed guardian, and 
he signalized his reign by moving away 286() 
carts of rubbish, which had accumulated in the 
lapse of ages, concealing some of the steps, and 
several prostrate fragments of beautiful work- 
manship. Here '' men of marble piecemeal melt 
away," and our guide has composed a laughable 
medley of the broken and mutilated statues, 



230 ELGIN CATHEDRAL. 

which he arranged in groups according to his 
own fancy, putting noses on wherever they were 
wanting, and placing heads upon bodies for 
which they were never intended. The party 
which he particularly piqued himself upon, con- 
sisted of a face with an expression of suffering, 
which he called Dives, a good-humoured com- 
placent-looking head near, represented Lazarus, 
and he had found a colossal dog's head, which 
was supposed to be licking the sores. A scold- 
ing physiognomy, which he discovered beneath 
a mountain of rubbish, he has stuck up on a 
tower opposite to another representing the ce- 
lebrated Wolf of Badenoch, who once did pen- 
ance here, standing barefoot at the great gate, 
and who not only robbed and massacred this 
noble edifice, but finally set it on fire. John 
Knox generally gets the blame wherever we see 
a roofless church, but you must acquit him on 
this occasion, as he can prove an alibi, not hav- 
ing yet been born. The old guide informed me 
that there were on this establishment formerly, 
two-and-twenty canons, which he thought it 
necessary to explain were not military but ec- 
clesiastical. 



ELGIN CATHEDRAL. 231 

Besides many fine old tombs of bishops and 
warriors now crumbling to dust, like those they 
were intended to commemorate, we were shown 
the coffin of King Duncan, but could hear no 
account of where his bones had been placed. I 
am told that, when the burying vault at Lord 

K ""s was opened some years ago, one of the 

coffins, which had been evidently burst open, 
was empty, and a skeleton lay at some distance, 
leading to the fearful conjecture that the unfor- 
tunate person had been interred alive. At 
the English burial vaults in Munich, each de- 
ceased person has a bell placed beside his body, 
in case he should come alive again ! a most de- 
sirable precaution in a sultry climate, where 
the funeral follows so immediately after death. 
Our cicerone showed us where the last two 
very popular and talented Dukes of Gordon are 
interred, and his voice faultered with emotion 
when he spoke, yet in any less solemnizing 
situation, you could scarcely have resisted a 
smile, at the free and easy tone with which he 
mentioned them as " my people," generally 
commencing his stories, of which he related 
many, by saying, " The Duke and I were talk- 



232 ELGIN CATHEDRAL. 

ing here one day" but he did not get so far 

as to say, like your friend, " I and the Duke !" 
How astonished noblemen would sometimes feel, 
if they could suddenly behold a collection of all 
the intimate friends who speak of them, in re- 
mote districts, with a degree of familiarity 
highly impressive, to country cousins and pro- 
vincial neighbours ; for many aspiring youths, 
who have dined once in company with a man of 
rank, or even passed him on the street, think it 
incumbent on them, ever afterwards, to forget 
his title ; and if it makes them happy, why not ? 
One remarkable phenomenon in the natural his- 
tory of fashionable life, which I really do pique 
myself upon having discovered, is, that any gentle- 
man who invariably gives an absent peer his title 
in mixed society, may, in all probability, have the 
privilege of dispensing with it if they actually 
meet ; but those who un-Lord a nobleman sup- 
posed to be at a safe distance, are obliged, when 
by ill-luck he unexpectedly appears — if on speak- 
ing terms at all, which is improbable — to make 
such an expenditure of Lordships in his pre- 
sence, as might pay off, with interest, all previ- 
ous deficiencies. A young lady from the country, 



ELGIN. 233 

some time ago, when taking a romantic leave of 
a school companion, the daughter of an Earl, 
exclaimed in a paroxysm of affection, " Do let 
us correspond, and may I call you Fanny V To 
which the particular friend replied, " Call me 
what you please, but spare me the letter-writ- 
ing !" 

I must conclude my long epistle with an 
amusing story in the Scotch dialect, which, 
though known in this neighbourhood, being 
related of a celebrated character who resided 
not far off, may probably be new to you ; and 
even at the worst, it is one of the very few I 
could venture to tell twice, therefore, try if you 
can understand it without a glossary. 

The Laird of Bonymoon was extremely hos- 
pitable, but so exceedingly lazy and indolent, 
that his sisters could scarcely ever entice him 
from the fireside ; but one morning they en- 
treated him with great anxiety to take a ride 
for the good of his health. 

" Hoot !" said he angrily, " what should gar 
me gang bumping on a horse, when I can sit 
quietly here wi' my glass o' toddy !" 

*' But, brother," answered they, " if anything 



234 ELGIN. 

should ail you, what would become of us ? Pray 
go for our sakes." 

" Weel ! ony thing for a quiet life ! I'll e'en 
tak' this weary ride. Fra sure, I wish it was 
o'er ; but mind ! 'gin I meet ony body coming 
this way, I'll bring him back to his dinner ; if 
no', may be I'll dine with some neighbour. 
John, saddle the horses." 

Accordingly off went the laird on a jog-trot 
awkward-looking horse, boxing the compass with 
his head to see if any human being were coming 
his way, as a pretext for turning ; but meeting 
nobody, he arrived at last near the house of an 
intimate friend. 

" Ah, Bonymoon, is this you ? I'm very glad 
to see you ! What wind brought you here f 

" Never mind that ! I'm come to dine wi' 
you ! What ha' ye got V 

" A bubbly jock and a grilse." * 

" John, tak' the horses ! Aye, neighbour, 
ye live weel ! Is there ony body wi' ye V 

" Only an English gentleman." 

In they went, and the host taking his stranger 
guest aside, whispered, " I think it necessary 

" Turkey and salmon. 



ELGIN. 235 

to inform you, that I mean to play the laird a 
trick. He is said to have neither taste nor 
smell, and 1 wish to try him with cherry brandy 
instead of port." 

After dinner, wine being put on table, the 
laird exclaimed, " But what's a' this ! youVe 
sent me a different bottle from your own !" 

" This is claret, and you like port." 

" Aye ! aye ! give me nane o' ye're washes. 
Gie me something that'll take a grip o' the 
stamach." 

He then filled a bumper to the King. " Ho- 
nest man ! I like him weel aneuch ! Oh ! neigh- 
bour, hae ye muckle o' this wine ! it's the best 
port I ever tasted ! oh ! man, it's fine !" 

Bumper after bumper was tossed down with 
increasing relish, till at last the bottle was 
emptied. 

" My guid friend," said the laird, " though 
you hae few o' thae bottles, will ye treat me to 
anither V 

" Certainly, Bonymoon ! Sandy ! another 
bottle ! be sure it is the same." 

The laird became more and more captivated 
with this new vintage of port, but after finishing 



236 ELGIN. 

the second supply, he made an attempt to rise, 
saying, " Weel, neighbour ! we've spent a very 
pleasant evening thegether, and had a great 
deal 0** sensible conversation." 

" You're not going already ?" 

" Aye ! aye ! the lasses at hame '11 be weary- 
ing." Saying this he made a second effort to 
get up, but stumbled and fell back, angrily ex- 
claiming, " Hoot ! canna' ye mak' the carpet 
straight ! thae runkles might throw down ony 
body." 

With the help of his obliging neighbour, 
the laird was mounted on horseback, when 
the Englishman anxiously remonstrated, saying, 
" Surely you will not send the gentleman home 
in such a state ! he will meet with some acci- 
dent!" 

" No! no! he is accustomed to it! only let 
us run up the approach, and hear him pledge the 
gudewife at my lodge in a dram." 

The two listeners arrived in time to hear the 
laird making many kind enquiries for a' the 
bairns, and the dialogue concluded by the gate- 
keeper saying, " It's an unco' raw night ! your 
honor wad na' be the war o' a drap whisky!" 



ELGIN. 237 

•' Deed no, gudewife! The laird's port sits 
imco' cauld on my stamach. Fill it up !" 

Bonymoon having thus primed himself, rode 
on with some spirit, but soon after, in crossing a 
small stream, the laird vainly tried to balance 
himself, but his head proved heaviest, and he 
slid down into the current. 

"John!" said he, " What's that I hear 
splashing in the water?" 

" I'm thinking it's your honor," answered John, 
getting off his horse to assist his master, who 
was with great difficulty remounted, but soon 
after, in passing over a wide moor, a sudden 
gust of wind carried away the laird's hat and 
wig, which he ordered John to find imme- 
diately. 

" It's impossible, your honor ! I might as weel 
look for a needle in a haystack ! " 

" Never mind that, John ! I winna stir with- 
out my wig!" 

John got down, grumbling loudly, and grop- 
ing about, until, by good luck, he found them 
both, when the laird attempted to put his wig 
on, but having placed the part that should have 



238 



ELGIN. 



been behind, in front, the cue hung over nis 
nose. 

" Stop, John ! this is no' my wig."" 
" Your honor maun just be doing then, for 
there's nae wail o' wigs here ! " replied John, 
coolly mounting his horse, and in this plight the 
laird arrived at home, where he staggered straight 
into the drawing-room, when his sisters, not at 
first recognizing him, screamed aloud with 
alarm. 

" Hoot!" said he, " what are ye bawling atf 
"Brother! is that you!" cried they eagerly. 
" What in the world has happened to you! 
Make haste into the fire, and change yourself. 
Quick ! Fm sure it will be long enough before we 
again recommend a ride for your health." 



239 



SPEY BRIDGE. 



My dear Cousin, — To do you justice, I scarce- 
ly know any one who stands the expence of pos- 
tage in a more magnanimous spirit than yourself, 
and accordingly I shall now put you to the test. 
I often think no vice carries its own punishment 
along with it so obviously as the love of money 
— it interferes with every thing — especially on a 
journey, for there can be few greater annoyances 
than to be surrounded by grumbling post-boys 
and discontented landladies; besides which, it 
impedes all sociability with our friends, all libe- 
rality to the poor, poisoning every meal we sit 
down to, embittering sickness itself on account 
of the expense, and even diminishing the plea- 



'2A{) SPEY BRIDGE. 

sures of a friendly correspondence like ours; in 
short, it meets you at every corner. However, 
vi'here necessary, I admire and respect judicious 
economy, but there can be no consolation for 
those who practise it in excess without absolute 
occasion. Those who have a liberal spirit and 
a limited income know, that what they save in 
one thing, will be added to their expenditure in 
something else of more absolute importance, 
but I cannot sufficiently wonder at those who 
make money the end of their being, merely for 
hoarding sake — merely that a cypher may at 
last be added to their book in the bank ! It 
seems to me the most unaccountable of all in- 
fatuations! I have come to the conclusion, 
after long and careful observation, that the very 
highest attainment of human good sense is, to 
proportion your expenses, both charitable and 
domestic, precisely to your income; for when we 
see that rich people become almost invariably 
avaricious, and that when the poor have little, 
they think it not worth hoarding, and become 
extravagant, I really think a testimonial should 
be voted to any man who can be proved to have 
kept the balance exactly for a certain number 



SPEY BRIDGE. 241 

of years, duly considering the claims of his chil- 
dren, his dependents, his religion, and even his 
o^vn comfort. It is a curious plienomenon how 
many rich people wish to live as if they were 
poor, and how many poor people contrive to 
live as if they were rich ! 

We this day crossed Spey Bridge without 
accident or mishap, which is more than the late 
Duke of Gordon did, who was standing on it 
during the great flood, eleven years ago, when 
hearing a sudden crack, he had barely time to 
flee, before, with the rapidity of lightning and 
a noise like thunder, a mass of water, piled with 
full-grown trees and with floating rubbish, swept 
forward in irresistible power, and buried the 
noble bridge in a dark and boiling torrent. His 
Grace, on that occasion, found his retreat cut off" 
towards Gordon Castle, having hurriedly escaped 
to the wrong side of the river, where he was 
charitably fed and clothed during several days at 
Orton, the hospitable residence of Mr. Wharton 
Duff". A new arch of wood has been since built, 
a single span, 200 feet wide, which really makes 
a tolerably long arm across the water. 

We still continue at full speed, hopping from 

M 



242 GORDON CASTLE. 

castle to castle, and from mountain to moun- 
tain, at a rate that would carry us very speedily 
round the world. It certainly is a great privi- 
lege to take possession of all these magnificent 
places for an hour or two, enjoying the land- 
scape, pictures, and furniture as if they were 
our own, and to- day we made a most agreeable 
and fatiguing house-tour in Gordon Castle, till 
my eyes became perfectly glassy with exhaustion. 
I wonder that people ever survive seeing the 
Louvre ! A week at Florence would kill me 
outright. 

Though the grounds of Inverary, Blair Athol, 
and Hopetoun House, are perhaps more exqui- 
sitely lovely than those of Gordon Castle, yet this 
seems to be, on the whole, the finest ducal resi- 
dence in Scotland. I am told that the largest 
mansion in England, Wentworth House, covers 
the eighth of a mile, but this is also of vast ex- 
tent, being five hundred and sixty-eight feet long, 
and built of the splendid Elgin free-stone : " A 
world of a house !" It is curious that every 
thing more magnificent or more beautiful than 
common, is apt to make us melancholy ! Music 
or poetry, or even an unusually generous action, 



GORDON CASTLE. 243 

bring tears starting to the eyes, and 1 have even 
known instances where the first surprise of be- 
holding a very majestic edifice has produced this 
effect, and I could perfectly fancy it arising in 
such a scene as this. Probably the tears we 
shed for the moral sublimity of a fine action, 
may partly be caused by a transient sense of 
what our nature was originally before the fall. 

The park at Gordon Castle is bounded only 
by the horizon ; the trees are gigantic, every 
thing, in short, appears on the grandest scale, 
and the great antiquity of this ancient family 
adds interest and dignity to all we admire. 
Every page in the history of Scotland seems 
mingled with the names of Huntly and Gordon, 
always brave, generous, and loyal, — the first to 
take arms for their king and country, remaining 
always true to the family motto, " By courage, 
not by craft." They flourished and reigned here 
since Robert Bruce transplanted them from 
Berwickshire, during two-and-twenty genera- 
tions ; but this noble estate has recently been 
divorced from the title, and alienated from a 
name so long supreme among those glens and 
hills of Strathspey. Can it be possible that the 



244 GORDON CASTLE. 

long line of Huntly and Gordon has actually 
vanished from the halls of their fathers ! This 
was indeed a nice little succession for those who 
have inherited it ! In ancient days the land 
frequently carried the title along with it, and, 
indeed, the time was once when a Marquis of 
Huntly might have unfurled his standard, rallied 
his clan around him, and bid defiance to an 
English successor, but perhaps in these days 
one could scarcely recommend such an experi- 
ment. It was an old rule in Scottish law, to 
claim all you can, and you may be certain to 
get more than you have a right to. 

One fine old tower of the ancient castle, far 
surmounting the rest, has remained stedfast, 
like a monument of past generations, through 
all the vicissitudes of time, and still continues, 
greatly excelling the adjoining edifice of more 
recent date. When I merely say a building is 
old, let that be considered equivalent to a pane- 
gyric, being, as you know, so fond of antiquities 
that I would any day prefer a Queen Anne's 
farthing to a good modern guinea. I only wish- 
ed this venerable tower had been roofless, be- 
cause we had so toilsome an ascent to the top. 



GORDON CASTLE. 245 

where A should have sung the popular song, 

*' Sic a rinin' up stairs !" We were amply re- 
paid, however, at last by a view which it would 
take me a folio volume to describe ; but never 
rest in peace till you have stood in an ecstacy of 
delight where we did to-day, and astonished the 
very stars with your exclamations of rapture. 

The entrance hall is decorated with every 
description of elegant lumber, among which we 
admired several beautiful busts and statues 
copied from the antique, particularly the Apollo 
Belvidere and the Venus de Medici, the grace 
and expression of which can scarcely be excelled, 
I should imagine, by their great originals at 
Florence, which have so long continued to " en- 
chant the world." 

Cosmo, Duke of Gordon, received his not very 
Highland name in compliment to Cosmo, Duke 
of Tuscany, whose exceedingly ugly bust stands 
in the entrance-hall, and from his foreign god- 
father the Duke seems to have derived a truly 
Italian taste for sculpture, as the entrance-hall 
would remind you of a marble-cutter's show- 
room. The stair-carpet here is of Gordon tar- 
tan, dark green and purple, which looks rather 



246 GORDON CASTLE. 

sombre, but is considered one of our hand- 
somest Highland plaids. I always feel sorry 
for the family pictures in an empty house, they 
look so lonely, cold, and forlorn, but here each 
individual ancestor seems to have been hand- 
some and distinguished-looking. In the dining- 
room hangs a complete wreath round the wall, 
representing Earls, Marquisses, and Marchio- 
nesses of Huntly, all looking their very best, as 
they appeared in the olden time ; and the worthy 
housekeeper seemed to think every grim-looking 
personage on the walls must have possessed the 
same title, as she created, without scruple or 
hesitation, a long succession of Marquisses on 
the spot. 

The first Earl, who had three wives, looks as 
if he had wept his eyes out for them all, and 
the first Marquis is a grand aristocratic-look- 
ing personage. On his first attending court, 
being censured for not bowing when introduced, 
he proudly replied, " I am accustomed to live 
in a country where every body bows to me ! "" 

George, second Marquis of Huntly, a melan- 
choly-looking man, was beheaded for his attach- 
ment to Charles the First. His two eldest sons 



GORDON CASTLE. 247 

were considered the most amiable and distin- 
guished youths of their time, but the first was 
killed under Montrose, and his brother died 
of grief for the execution of Charles the First. 
How enthusiastic was the attachment which 
that monarch created ! 

Ladies were sometimes very strange beings long 
ago ! only very long ago, not now, — and we look- 
ed with some awe yet, at the ancient Countess of 
Huntly, who was a most terrifying character in 
her time. About the year 1 590, during her hus- 
band's absence, she received the chief of Mackin- 
tosh on an embassy of peace, and angrily declared, 
that there should be no reconciliation till his 
neck was on the block. The unwary visitor 
jocularly laid his head on a table in pretended 
submission, seeing which one of the attendants of 
the Countess instantly grasped a carving-knife, 
and severed it from his shoulders. This un- 
happy victim was nephew to the Earl of Moray. 
His followers she afterwards imprisoned, and 
fed them like swine out of a trough ; but for 
these cruelties, and many more, her title was 
forfeited, though subsequently restored. 

The son of this ferocious lady being condemn- 



248 GORDON CASTLE. 

ed to death, she begged his life in vain, and 
found no more mercy than she had shown. Be- 
ing considered the handsomest man of the age, 
Queen Mary became accused of partiality to him, 
and was forced against her will to witness his 
execution. Nothing in the way of fortune-tell- 
ing could be more curious than that which oc- 
curred to this Countess's husband. Lord Huntly, 
who had been warned that he should certainly 
die at Corraighie. The name sounded to him 
like Creigh, a place near Aberdeen, which he 
always afterwards carefully avoided, but when 
dangerously wounded at the battle of Corraighie, 
he anxiously inquired the name of the place, on 
hearing which, he repeated it thrice before he 
died, " Corraighie ! Corraighie ! Corraighie I 
then God be merciful to me !" 

Two beautiful representations are extant here 
of the celebrated Duchess of Gordon, whose 
witty and eccentric sayings are the favourite 
theme of every jest-book. Sir Joshua Eeynolds 
had the honour of having executed the very 
lovely one we first observed, with the finest eyes 
that ever lighted up a face, but the portrait was 
not at all characteristic, being drawn with that 



GORDON CASTLE. 249 

pensive, languid, not-particularly-clever expres- 
sion observable in most of the female portraits 
by that artist. The other, by Angelica Kauft- 
man, had so noble an aspect, that I should feel 
proud only to be the nail that it was hung upon. 
Her Grace's countenance appeared radiant with 
all that spirit and vivacity for which she was 
long distinguished, while you could perfectly 
imagine her uttering some startling and piquant 
bon mot, such as those with which she frequently 
enlivened the dullest society. There are per- 
sons who seem formed for the situations they 
occupy, and when I remember Jane Duchess of 
Gordon's queen-like majesty of appearance and 
commanding manner, it seems as if by nature 
she could never have been otherwise than the 
leading person in every circle, even without the 
adventitious aid of her exalted rank. 

Her Grace, when dying, desired to be buried 
at her own favourite and romantic residence, 
Kinrara, on the Spey. She ordered that for 
her epitaph the names and titles of all her 
daughters should be engraved on the tombstone, 
where I am told they may now be read at full 
length. Among the number are included three 



250 GORDON CASTLE. 

Duchesses and a Marchioness. Certainly no 
one ever played more successfully at the game 
of " catch honours.*" 

The Duke, her husband, lived to the age of 
eighty- four, and is represented in every stage of 
existence, from childhood to the most advanced 
period of life. It would have been amusing to 
arrange the whole series close together ! He 
is exliibited first on the staircase, when two 
years old, as Cupid, equipped with wings and a 
quiver ; but to these customary decorations a 
light tartan scarf is superadded, while the mis- 
chievous little sprite looks highly entertained at 
his extraordinary transformation into a High- 
lander. 

Five other portraits of his Grace hang else- 
where ; the first painted at Rome, where he has 
evidently returned from a capital day"'s sport, 
being surrounded by tired looking dogs and 
dead game. In another frame, he sports a 
fancy dress ; and this likeness was said to have 
been painted by Raeburn at the time of his 
marriage. His Grace next looks down from 
the wall in his Lord Lieutenanfs uniform, and 
last, in extreme old age, with his star and 



GORDON CASTLE. 251 

ribbon, which I remember his invariably wear- 
ing in the evenings, being of the now exploded 
opinion, that such honourable decorations should 
occasionally be seen, and need not be reserved 
only for a coronation. The Duke was an excel- 
lent performer on the violin, and delighted so 
peculiarly in Scotch music, that if every one felt 
as keen a national partiality, the Italian Opera- 
House would soon be deserted. 

There are three pictures at Gordon Castle of 
the celebrated Lord Peterborough, looking very 
spirited and consequential, as if " a thousand 
hearts were great within his breast T"* and cer- 
tainly few heroes have merited a larger leaf of 
laurel. As a lady once impatiently remarked 
of her husband, " cats have nine lives, but he 
seemed to have ten." In one of Lord Peter- 
borough's portraits, he wears a wig waving in 
billows over his shoulders, which five ordinary 
heads of hair could scarcely have supplied. He 
would have made an excellent frontispiece for 
Rowland's macassar oil ; but in these days a 
wig must have been almost as expensive as an 
estate, when a country girl received L.6.0 for 



252 GORDON CASTLE. 

her ringlets, and an old woman's grey hair was 
sold for L.50 ! 

Lord Peterborough said, after visiting Fene- 
lon, " If I had stayed with him any longer, I 
should have become a Christian in spite of my- 
self !" How unfortunate for him now, that he 
did not ! His courage in the field was only ex- 
celled by the firmness with which he sustained 
the long agonies of a painful death, but his was 
the stern endurance of a Stoic, not the enlighten- 
ed resignation of a Christian. Even when fold- 
ing his mantle around him to fall with dignity, 
he was coldly sarcastic in talking of Christianity, 
and merely said, that " he made a point of being 
civil to all religions," a species of compromise 
only too common now ! It is curious that Lord 
Peterborough's daughter, the Duchess of Gordon, 
introduced the Protestant faith into this family, 
previously bigoted Roman Catholics, but being 
left guardian of her son, while a minor, she 
brought him up in her own creed, which was, for- 
tunately, less accommodating than that of her 
father. When we see a cold, hard, stern, dispo- 
sition like his, united to such great natural en- 



GORDON CASTLE. 253 

dowments, it reminds me of a frost-bound gar- 
den, where no flowers nor fruit can flourish ; and 
till the good seed be sown, till the dew fall, and 
the sun shine from heaven upon the barren 
waste, how cheerless and desolate a sight it must 
ever remain. 

We admired much, a very handsome portrait, 
in full Highland garb, of the late very popular 
Duke, — the last heir of his long line ! The world 
has been so accustomed for centuries to have 
Dukes of Gordon successively appearing, that it 
seems quite strange now without one ! In the 
same room hangs a picture, such as you seldom 
see, representing the Duke of Perth, so dignified, 
so animated, and so very intellectual looking, 
that the whole expression was in character with 
the history of one, who was " as brave as he was 
bonny." The dress consists of a graceful plaid 
thrown over his Highland uniform. What a 
misfortune to gentlemen of taste, being born in 
the present century, when their whole genius 
must limit itself to a blue coat and black neck- 
cloth ! The worst portrait in this collection is 
one of George IV., presented by his Majesty to 
the late Duke, but it is a most unworthy repre- 



254 GORDON CASTLE. 

sentation of " the first gentleman in Europe," 
looking more like some country actor performing 
a burlesque, and exactly in the attitude of Lord 
Bateman's " proud porter." 

We were considerably entertained by a full 
length portrait of James the Second's Queen, 
when in exile. She is consoling herself by feed- 
ing a pet lamb, while her crown is laid on the 
ground in a garden, her dog lies at her feet, her 
flowers are scattered about, and a book is in her 
hand, so she is apparently resolved to find com- 
fort in something, and her Majesty looks so fat 
and good-humoured, that the cares of abdica- 
tion have evidently sat very lightly on her brow. 
She seemed by no means in the vein of exclaim- 
ing, like the celebrated John Home, when vexed 
by some trifling disappointment, 

" Let petrifaction stop this falling tear, 
And fix my form for ever marble here ! " 

A very antique portrait of Queen Mary is at 
Gordon Castle, said, of course, to be original, 
and I almost believe it. The date is 1568, the 
last year of her liberty, and it has the brilliant 
look of health and animation, which vanished, 



GORDON CASTLE. 255 

after every gay vision of power and glory had 
been blotted out by her tears. 

I have no song of youth and hope, 

That does not close in care ; 

I have no tale of woman's love 

That ends not in despair j 

I only breathe the name of joy 

To tell how soon it dies ; 

I only sing the songs that suit 

Thy notes, my harp of sighs. 

In the same collection is shown the portrait 
of a young beauty, who might certainly have 
rivalled Queen Mary herself. She was the 
favourite friend of a former Duchess, who must 
have been superior to envy or jealousy, but the 
name of this lovely vision is forgotten by our ci- 
cerone, so she must remain anonymous. Any 
young lady, with one feature of her face, might 
set up for a beauty, for they are all equally per- 
fect. The Magazin des Modes would describe 
her dress as " a robe of rich white satin, a scarf 
of torquoise blue, and her chesnut hair simply 
combed back off her forehead." The lovely 
countenance was painted so much to the life, 
that she seemed to blush when we looked at 
her. 



256 GORDON CASTLE. 



1 



One of the ancient pictures in this collection 
represents Herodias carrying the head of John 
the Baptist in a charger; but the artist has 
given her much too gentle and feminine an 
expression, though, certainly, the sweetest coun- 
tenances do sometimes conceal the sternest 
minds ; and when you see a fixed unalterable 
smile in any face, with a particularly subdued 
manner, the probabilities are ten to one that 
this habitual aspect has been assumed as a 
necessary veil to hide the real temper. 

The only cheerful portrait of Charles the 
First, that I ever beheld, is here ! He has un- 
deniably relaxed into a smile, and looks as if he 
might, occasionally in his life, have enjoyed a 
happy moment. 

Connoisseurs all agree in saying, that the 
finest painting in this collection is that of St. 
Paul rebuking St. Peter. The colouring and 
expression are so exceedingly forcible, that I 
could not get far enough off" to catch the gene- 
ral effect advantageously, but it looked too 
hard and distinct, having very much the effect 
of a tableau vivant^ without the gauze curtain. 

I could not but reflect, in looking around on 



GORDON CASTLE. 257 

those ancient walls and pictures, what a busy 
interesting world this has been before we enter- 
ed it ! So many distinguished men ! so many 
beautiful women ! so many fine painters ! so 
many venerable books, in black letter, and in 
white letter ! so many banners now idly waving 
over our heads, and so many broad-swords 
rusting in their scabbards, which wanted only 
the heroes who wielded them, to become as 
bright and as powerful as ever ! Ours is a 
busy world still, but how different ! What a 
sordid mioney-making activity bestirs us now ! 
Men were formerly estimated according to their 
heroism, their bodily strength, or their talents, 
but now the standard of everything is wealth, — 
not even the use that is made of it, but the 
mere possession ! We examined in the armoury 
Charles Edward's leathern purse, with a silver 
clasp, which he presented to the then Duke of 
Gordon. It is scarcely more empty now, than 
it was while he owned it ; but where would any 
one find in the present day, partizans as ready 
on a chivalrous impulse to forfeit their wealth 
and estates ! The first question now, prepara- 



258 GORDON CASTLE.. 

tory to engaging in any new undertaking is, 
" what per cent, will it bring f Men are 
flocking to Australia for twenty per cent., or to 
be devoured by the cannibals of New Zealand 
for thirty, while even sportsmen no longer carry 
their guns on the moors, without an eye to pro- 
fit, but make money by their very amusements. 
Many become poulterers now, and sell the birds 
they kill, or have them potted for the East 
Indian market ! or exchange them for shot ! 
What old lady can ever hope now, to receive 
her annual box of grouse with anybody's com- 
pliments, when, as Dr. Johnson wisely observes, 
" Few men give what they can sell.''"' 

It has been often remarked, that the richest 
and most extravagant Englishmen generally 
turn extremely saving when they enter Scot- 
land, probably imagining that we are not accus- 
tomed to see much expense ; but among those 
who contract to supply dealers with game at so 
much per head, from our Highland moors, are 
found the young heirs to some of the highest 
honours and most extensive properties in the 
south. Grouse are, however, the unconscious 



GORDON CASTLE. 2.59 

benefactors of Scotland, by gathering the best 
company round them, as, without their attrac- 
tions, we should be almost entirely deserted. 

A charming sheltered garden lies close behind 
Gordon Castle, very tastefully laid out, tlie 
gravel walks meandering like a chain round a 
brilliant patch-work of flower-beds, which are 
thus cut into diagonal squares, with here and 
there a morsel of smooth turf to vary the colour- 
ing. At some distance may be seen a still 
more beautiful parterre, which has been laid 
out in a stone quarry. The soil is, of course, 
all artificial, but you can imagine nothing more 
picturesque than the strange irregularities of 
ground. It would almost weary you to look at 
the steep walks leading towards precipices, 
sloping banks, and shady recesses, varied by 
moss-houses, stone basins hewn from the quarry, 
jets d'eau, Egyptian obelisks, and a miniature 
Parthenon carved in the same rock on which it 
stands. At the gate are placed some inimitable 
old sculptured stones from the ancient parish 
church of Fochabers, which bestow a look of 
great antiquity on the entrance, and the whole 
is enlivened by a brilliant profusion of showy 



260 GORDON CASTLE. 

flowers, and by the most emerald-coloured grass 
you can fancy. This is a small fragment of 
fairy land, wanting only the talking bird, the 
golden water, and the singing apple. 

After leaving the quarry, we entered a walk, 
shaded by enormous natural hollies, which must 
be magnificent when the dark varnished leaves 
are enlivened by their scarlet berries like bunches 
of coral. Many are more than forty feet high, 
with stems five or six feet in circumference, and 
some being grouped together in clusters of a 
dozen large trunks, I almost mistook for mode- 
rate sized beeches. It is a curious provision of 
nature for the protection of hollies, that all the 
lower leaves, within reach of cattle, are furnish- 
ed with strong prickles to serve as a defensive 
armour, but the upper branches are not. 

We were misled, on many occasions to-day, 
by the uncommon size to which several species 
of trees have enlarged themselves. You were 
diverted formerly by the little girl at her les- 
sons, who said, " how can I make a mistake 
now, when I am four years old !" but we, at a 
still more advanced period of life, made a few 
to-day, during our wanderings through the 



GORDON CASTLE. 261 

park. Two fine aspen trees passed themselves 
off upon me, at a distance, for full grown oaks, 
till I observed them in a quiver of agitation. 
Their stems were fourteen feet round, and be- 
fore severing into branches, the solid trunk rose 
thirteen feet high. The bark was of so uniform 
a tint, and the arch of leaves so perfect, that 
they looked like two pillars of Elgin Cathedral 
come out to take the air. Sir James Hall 
once planted a cathedral of trees at Dunglas, 
the long aisles represented by the tall white 
columns of the poplar trees, the branches of 
which formed, at one end, a fine Gothic 
window. 

Near those aspens at Gordon Castle, we saw 
a noble ash tree, living in a most critical situa- 
tion. The massy trunk had been split from 
top to bottom in the late hurricane, but both 
halves were yet standing. At every breeze they 
yawned asunder, and closed again, creaking and 
groaning in a most fearful manner, as if haunted 
by some troubled spirit. The leaves were still 
flourishing as gay as ever, unconscious of their 
impending fate, but this hoary patriarch of the 
forest is evidently struggling with a mortal 



262 GORDON CASTLE. 

wound, though we hurried to a gardener with 
information of the catastrophe, hoping that an 
iron bandage might, for some time longer, pre- 
serve it ahve. When Lord S n, some years 

ago, intended cutting down several ancient ash 
trees, a friend induced him to grant them a re- 
prieve, by saying, in a tone of remonstrance, 
" Surely you will not disturb the ashes of your 
ancestors?" 

The chief ornament of this ducal park is a 
graceful lime tree, beneath which stood the fa- 
vourite seat of Duchess Jane, when surrounded 
by her chosen companions. We sat under the 
vast shadow of this forest chief, surrounded by 
a wall of leaves which swept to the ground on 
every side, forming an arbour of 200 feet cir- 
cumference, and there we recalled the gay spirits 
and joyous scenes which once enlivened this so- 
litary bower. The Hamadryad who presides 
here, must then have enjoyed a merry time of 
it ! Her Grace might almost have worn the brace- 
let of another equally celebrated Duchess who, 
rather whimsically, desired this inscription to bo 
set on it in diamonds, " I shall never lose my 
s^jiritsf How happy for those who can keep such 



GORDON CASTLE. 263 

a resolution, but the power to do so requires a 
more secure foundation than our own most re- 
solute intentions. 

One of the lodges in this park looks so exactly 
as if built of parliament cakes, that it has been 
called " The Parliament House." It is an ex- 
cellent imitation of a Jager''s house in Switzer- 
land, and produces a very striking effect here. 
The old gamekeeper who kept it was so eager 
for sport, that the late Duke laughingly said to 
him one day, " You would shoot your own 
grandfather, if he fell in your way?" It used to 
be amusing long ago, before moors were " let 
furnished,"" to discover how very little concep- 
tion the English had of game being ever pre- 
served in the Highlands, as they fancied it was 
only necessary to land at Dundee or at Aber- 
deen, and to load their guns. A Scotch pro- 
prietor, some years ago, met a large party going 
north, fully equipped with guns and dogs, but 
could not precisely ascertain what moors they 
had leave upon, till at last it came out, that 
they were merely at random, " going to shoot 
in the north !" The rent of a barren moor is 



264 GORDON CASTLE. 

now almost equal to that of the best arable 
land! 

Several years since, an English stranger, who 
had never probably seen grouse or red deer even 
in the zoological gardens, returned from an excel- 
lent day's sport, saying he had shot eight head 
of deer ! They all turned out to be goats ! 

I was much amused to hear a narrow escape 
made by Sheridan when he was deer-shooting 
once in the north ; but his ingenuity was equal to 
every emergency, and delivered him on this oc- 
casion. The Duke of Atholl having furnished 
him with an escort of Highlanders, besides a 
luxurious and very substantial luncheon, he be- 
gan the day's sport by sitting down to finish 
the wine and refreshments, during which un- 
usual commencement of the campaign, his com- 
panions, after consulting aside for some time, 
came forward in a body, and sternly asked 
whether he were any relation to " that wicked 
fellow Sheridan of London, who had dared to 
abuse Lord Melville?" 

" What do you take me for?" answered Sheri- 
dan, with well-feigned indignation. " Related to 



GORDON CASTLE. 265 

such a fellow as that ! If I could only catch the 
rascal, I would hang him on the spot !" 

" So should we, as soon as look at him .'"replied 
the trusty escort, confidentially, and poor Sheri- 
dan, who frequently told the story afterwards, 
lost no time in making a pretext to hurry home. 

If Gordon Castle degenerate into a mere 
shooting-box, it has at least the attraction of a 
splendid deer-forest, which has become a more 
fashionable scene for sportsmen now, than even 
the moore. We were shown the horns of a red- 
deer, shot by Alexander Duke of Gordon after 
his Grace was eighty. A circle of deer's heads 
is placed round the room, each carrying an 
inscription to commemorate the history of his 
own death, how, when, where, and by whom 
he was massacred. Thus every skull becomes 
in itself a monument and an epitaph ! 

Wo ought to believe any thing on sufficient 
evidence, and the very incredible fact seems noNv 
ascertained, that the deer eat their own horns ! 
It was proved to the satisfaction of a learned 
jury once, that a man had bit off his own nose, 
but this achievement of the deer seems nearly as 
difficult. Gamekeepers, to whom the horns might 



266 GORDON CASTLE. 

be a valuable perquisite, hardly ever find any 
stray antlers during the season at which they 
are shed, and fragments have been discovered 
occasionally in the animaFs throat when dis- 
sected. One red-deer was found dead, having ap- 
parently committed suicide, as it was choked by 
a bit of its own horn. People who bite their 
nails, must have a somewhat similar propensity ! 
A lady remarked lately, that she felt thank- 
ful to bo born in an age when worsted work was 
in fashion, as she never knew the real happiness 
of life till she tried it, but nothing shews more 
obviously the tedium suffered by gentlemen at 
home, than to observe the hardships they will 
gladly endure in search of what is called sport. 
A soldier would deserve to be covered with mi- 
litary glory for encountering as many privations 
and difficulties to defend his country, as a draw- 
ing-room fine gentleman will cheerfully welcome 
in pursuit of a single red-deer. He spends nights 
in watching on the hills, days standing up to 
the knees in water, springs over peat-bogs, lies 
perdu for hours among the heather, crawls along 
the bed of a burn, or wades across a river, reck- 
oning every thing a pleasure that promotes this 



GORDON CASTLE. 267 

fascinating amusement. A gentleman, lately, 
accustomed to all his comforts, gravely remarked. 
after a few days' laborious experience, " How 
pleasant it was, to lie all night under a plaid 
upon the hill-side, and to hear the rain pattering 
around !"" 

We had rain " pattering" in abundance all 
the way from Gordon Castle, for now a ceaseless 
busy drizzle began. The foliage, however, 
formed so thick a canopy along the approach, 
that we scarcely remembered to raise an um- 
brella, though on reaching the high road, it 
had become, like the Nile, a river of mud. 

In passing, we made a leisurely survey of the 
fruit and vegetable gardens, containing six acres 
within the wall ; and I took a turn also in the 
hot-houses, to remind myself of what summer 
used to be, when we had warm weather occa- 
sionally. Here we saw, in the richest perfection, 
figs, pines, grapes, peaches, nectarines, — every- 
thing, in short, except people to eat them, and 
around us were bowers of blooming plants, — 
cactusses drooping unnoticed, heaths looking 
lieautiful in vain, and roses of a hundred varie- 
ties " wasting" no ! that hackneyed quota- 



268 GORDON CASTLE. 

tion is, like many others, worn to rags, and 
must positively be left off. There ought to be 
a severe fine against every person now, who 
" sits like patience on a monument" — who 
" drags at each remove a length'^ning chain" — 
who " blushes unseen" — who " flies from grave 
to gay" — or who " hints a fault and hesitates 
dislike," — but I shall not conclude my letter, as 
you expect, by saying, that my heart is " un- 
travelled," for with my whole heart I enjoy 
travelling, and regret every mile we leave be- 
hind, as if I were losing an estate. 



269 



FOCHABERS. 



Lord Harry lias written a novel — 

A story of elegant life ; 
No stuff about love in a hovel. 

No sketch of a clown and his wife. 
But full of such elegant touches ! 

Our lips in derision we curl, 
Unless we are told how a Duchess 

Conversed with her cousin, the Earl. 

My dear Cousin, — The unfortunate man who 
had his choice of working in the mines, or read- 
ing through a folio volume, preferred the bodily 
to the mental labour ; but you shall herewith 
be condemned unheard to endure several folio 
pages this morning, and to work out a perfect 
mine of information, therefore, put on your 
spectacles of criticism, and accompany me 
through my life and adventures during a long 
and busy day. 



270 FOCHABERS. 



I 



At Fochabers, Murray the innkeeper, who 
retired from business this year, was originally a 
foundling, and never had a guess of his own 
history, but all his life he annually receives a 
blank cover containing L.50. Now, there is a 
ready made novel for you at once ! According 
to all the rules of romance, he must some day 
find himself out to be, at least, a peer. I wonder 
what titles and estates will unexpectedly prove 
to be his ? 

The inhabitants of this little hamlet should 
all become literary characters, seeing, that be- 
sides the many academies already in action, 
a native of Fochabers recently bequeathed 
L.20,000 to establish schools here; and Mr. 
Dick left so large a fortune to increase the 
salaries of schoolmasters in the counties of 
Aberdeen, Banff, and Elgin, that here the 
alphabet might be printed in letters of gold. 
At the little inn of Grantown, our plates dis- 
played the alphabet an inch long marked all 
round the margins, that travellers may lose no 
time in exercising their intellects while eating ; 
and I heard of lessons being taught in politics 
lately, by having political sentiments written in 



FOCHABERS. 271 

pastry across the tarts for dinner ; but now, 
even while washing and combing their hair, 
children are taught appropriate verses ; and 
when I hear a mob of ragged boys singing, 
" This is the way we wash our face," it gives 
me pleasure to know that the ceremony is ever 
performed at all. 

Infant schools would be a most beneficial 
invention for both parents and children in the 
lower ranks, even though it involve the Spartan 
principle of a separation between them, if we 
could only obtain a concession on behalf of those 
very juvenile students, that there shall be half 
the quantity of lessons administered, and double 
the quantity of play allowed. The mechanical, 
and almost regimental exercises which these 
baby scholars go through, under the misapplied 
name of amusement, amount to so strict a re- 
straint on mind and body, that they should, in 
fairness, be ranked in the class of lessons, be- 
cause nothing but perfect natural freedom can 
be a complete relaxation to children, and so in- 
cessant a drilling as the little creatures undergo 
must prove injurious and exhausting. 



272 



FOCHABERS. 



We inspected one infant school near Foch- 
abers, where ninety-five children under eight 
years old were improving their minds. I cer- 
tainly never saw a more beautiful group ! 
Ninety of them at least were pretty, while all, 
without exception, looked clean, well-dressed, 
and healthy. The day having proved wet, none 
of them got out to play, but the pains-taking 
schoolmistress kept up, in a close hot room, a 
succession of singing, marching, and counter- 
marching, mechanically, till the whole juvenile 
party were at last allowed to sit down, suffering 
agonies of drowsiness. When we entered, three 
or four had fallen back on the laps of those be- 
hind, others required a rousing like Baron 
Trenck, several were singing, the eyes rolling in 
their heads, a few had made a desperate struggle 
and cried themselves awake, while many ap- 
proached as nearly to somnambulism as Lady 
Macbeth. The continual singing is in itself 
somniferous ; a certain degree of monotony be- 
comes quite unavoidable in the lessons ; and even 
the clapping of hands and beating of feet, though 
excellent as an occasional exercise for very young 



FOCHABERS. 273 

pupils, cannot fairly come under the designation 
of play, which must be the dictate of sponta- 
neous instinct and buoyant natural spirits. 

It is most true, as the well known proverb 
says, that " an idle mind is Satan's favourite 
workshop," and poor children, when left at home, 
are lamentably neglected, while they cannot but 
thus acquire confused notions of right and wrong, 
being more punished by their busy hard-working 
parents, for being merely troublesome, than for 
the worst moral offences, besides becoming hope- 
lessly idle, ignorant, and slovenly, impeding the 
labours of those who support them, and learning 
neither habits nor principles in accordance with 
religion. During the few years of childhood, 
therefore, when, being too young for any profit- 
able labour, they might have time to learn the 
reading of their Bibles, it is indeed a blessing 
that they have the opportunity to acquire all such 
knowledge of holy Scripture as human teaching- 
can impart ; and certainly it has been a useful 
discovery of modern times, that when children are 
taught to read, they can be taught also to under- 
stand what they read, therefore, much gratitude 
is due to those who, by the institution of infant 



274 FOCHABERS. 



n 



schools, rescue young families from the ruin of 
both body and soul, which must, too probably, 
result from the unavoidable neglect which awaits 
them at home. Yet even the very best things 
may be over done, so that the forced intellects 
and forced spirits of infants should be allowed 
a very large proportion of entire, unconstrained 
relaxation, to recover their natural tone. Before 
seven or eight years old, the disposition, feelings, 
and principles, can successfully be regulated, but 
very little knowledge can be safely instilled at so 
feeble an age, without overstretching the facul- 
ties, as much as if a tottering child attempted 
to carry a burden intended for a man. The 
heart is capable of being trained before the head, 
but all that can be gained by unnatural stimulus 
in unripe age, is lost to mind and body after- 
wards. 

The four elder children at Fochabers exhibit- 
ed astonishing powers of memory, and a know- 
ledge of the Bible which a divinity student 
could scarcely excel. It was perfectly amazing ! 
No spectator could have been otherwise than de- 
lighted, as we were, and all I would advocate, 
while discussing the system of early training 



FOCHABERS. 275 

•among poor children, is, that for every hour of 
lessons, they should be allowed an hour of real 
undeniable romping, and become initiated occa- 
sionally in the mysteries of hide and seek, or 
blind man's buff. One of the most learned and 
accomplished scholars I ever knew, used to men- 
tion that he was formerly very partial to chess, 
but finding it more a study than a game, it did 
not afford sufficient relaxation to be considered 
a mere amusement, nor was it useful enough to 
be followed as a pursuit, therefore, he unwilling- 
ly relinquished that interesting employment of 
time, but I saw him soon afterwards engaged 
with a joyous young party of children, playing 
at battledore and shuttlecock, which seemed 
thoroughly to unbend for the time, a mind long 
and successfully exerted for the best interests of 
man. We are all aware that, as the bow re- 
quires to be often unstrung, the more pliant it 
may be, the more absolutely necessary that re- 
action becomes. 

Apropos of very juvenile precociousness, I was 
greatly diverted lately to read an advertisement, 
of a new astringent application for the gums, 



276 CULLEN HOUSE. 

beginning, " Children cutting their teeth are 
respectfully informed !" 

We had a charming drive from Fochabers to 
Cullen House, one of the most splendid places 
in Scotland, formerly the seat of Lord Findla- 
ter's family, as long as there was a Lord Find- 
later to inherit it, but now belonging to the fa- 
mily of Grant, Lord Seafield. It might be ex- 
ercise enough during winter to walk every day 
through all the seven drawing-rooms, and to stir 
the seven fires ! You would be quite charmed 
by the magnificent suite of apartments, and by 
the beautiful entrance-hall, decorated with rare 
exotics and marble busts, — the one being the 
most evanescent, and the other the most durable 
ornaments with which we can adorn our abodes. 

There are several battalions of pictures here, 
both foreign and domestic, many of which are 
extremely interesting. In the first room we saw 
such a congress of kings, that one would require 
Hurae''s History of England to bring them all 
to mind. The fine full-length likeness of James 
the Sixth, by Mytens, encountered an odd ad- 
venture in its day, — a riotous mob, during the 



CULLEN HOUSE. 277 

revolution, tore it down from the walls of Holy- 
rood House, and were kicking this royal portrait 
ignominiously along the street, when Lord Find- 
later, then Chancellor of Scotland, made a 
spirited attack on the angry multitude, and suc- 
cessfully rescued his Majesty from so degrading a 
situation. 

The extinct line of Lords Findlater inherited 
great talents, and were all considered supremely 
handsome, particularly the Earl who flourished 
when the Union was signed. The portrait of him 
at Cullen House fully justifies his reputation, 
being of a most noble and commanding aspect, 
very unlike the flippancy of character he dis- 
played, when, after signing the roll which put 
an end to the independence of Scotland, he 
coolly tossed away his pen, saying, " There is 
the end of an old song !" 

Six years afterwards, however, Lord Find- 
later's dormant patriotism was awakened by be- 
holding various acts of injustice to Scotland, in 
consequence of which, he tried to get a new edi- 
tion of the old song, having made a motion in 
the House of Lords to dissolve the Union ; and 



278 CULLEN HOUSE. 

he divided the votes, fifty-four against fifty-four, j 
but was ultimately defeated by four proxies. ■ 

Another Lord Findlater we saw who distin- 
guished himself as an agriculturalist, and intro- 
duced turnips in this neighbourhood, for which 
he will scarcely be thanked by the epicures in 
milk and cream. A poor criminal was con- 
demned to severe punishment once, for stealing 
a turnip, because, as the judge sternly remarked, 
" turnips lead to legs of mutton." 

One family portrait in this gallery is admira- 
bly painted, and the hand has been thought so 
perfect a chef d''oeuvre, that an artist once came 
from Italy to study it. The countenance looks 
more alive than many living men ! This picture 
represents the most accomplished and highly 
gifted of all the Findlater family, who over- 
strained his great intellect until at length he 
became deranged, and died in the most melan- 
choly of all ways. His expression of counte- 
nance looks excited, though indicating extreme 
talent, and his dress appears remarkably pic- 
turesque, but you will not easily suppose it 
graceful, when I mention that he is equipped in 



CULLEN HOUSE. 279 

a loose yellow dressing-gown and a white night- 
cap ! By a curious coincidence 1 mistook his 
portrait for one of Cowper, who serves as another 
melancholy evidence how often " great wit to 
madness nearly is allied.'" 

The ladies in this family seem all to have 
been less good-looking than their lords, and if 
a " Book of Beauty" had been published in those 
days, would scarcely have been as well entitled 
to fill a page. The last Countess of Findlater 
was a foreigner, and became blind during many 
of her latter years. The portrait of her pre- 
decessor was hung up, as a mark of extraordi- 
nary respect, in the county rooms of Aberdeen, 
— a public testimony to female excellence al- 
most unprecedented. When this Lady Find- 
later was told that, owing to the embarrassed 
condition of her husband^s affairs, the estate must 
be sold, she firmly replied, " No ! not an acre !" 
and by extraordinary management she saved the 
whole of this beautiful property, besides which, 
she has signalized her memory by leaving a 
magnificent evidence of her taste and liberality. 
The house formerly stood in an almost unap- 
proachable position, being nearly surrounded by 



280 CULLEN HOUSE. 



a broad and very deep chasm, the sides of which 
were equally difficult to ascend or to descend, 
and almost impossible for a carriage, but Lady 
Findlater erected, at the expense of her own 
privy purse, a noble bridge of one splendid arch, 
sixty feet high and eighty-two feet wide, which 
springs across the widely separated precipices, 
and forms a beautiful object from the windows, 
as well as a most convenient access. 

The trees which adorn this glen are particu- 
larly fine, and the river scenery most enchanting, 
with an abundant flow of crisp clear water, and 
the green sloping banks charmingly wooded and 
gaily peopled by a musical colony of birds. One 
great delight of the country arises from the in- 
timacy we form with all the animal species, 
which soon become our familiar friends ; cattle, 
horses, dogs, sheep, deer, cows, and every living 
creature, become a source of interest, whose 
habits of life, temper, manner, and conduct, it 
is a perpetual amusement to study. Even a 
bee-hive is equal to any rout in a city, being 
as crowded, hot, and noisy, while each indivi- 
dual carries a sting which may or may not be 
used as he pleases. I could sit for an hour giv- 



1 



CULLEN HOUSE. 281 

ing language to their busy hum, or, like Gil 
Bias, making dialogues for the birds. 

Over all the windows of this venerable pile 
may be seen eye-brows of handsomely sculptured 
stone, with initials, dates, coats of arms, and 
grotesque heads, in addition to which, several 
moral and religious sentences are inscribed in 
very antique characters. Two of these which I 
decyphered contain very sound divinity, and con- 
vey a pleasing testimony to the spirit of piety 
in which this ancient house was originally found- 
ed, and for which, in the existing generation, it 
is still pre-eminent, — " Faith is the ground of our 
hope," we find engraved beside one window, and 
near that which adjoins it, " Hope is the anchor 
of faith." 

Our drive towards Banff led through a rich 
granary, where, not many years ago, the whole 
country was a wide wilderness of bog. Here 
the poor can scarcely be called poor at all, they 
are so liberally attended to by Lord Fife, the 
chief proprietor in this neighbourhood, who is 
said to employ above three hundred persons on 
the grounds of Duff House alone, giving work 
to those who will work, and money to those who 




282 BANFF. 

prefer being idle. The daily distribution which 
takes place here of gold and silver coin would 
astonish even Dr. Alison, and outrun his utmost 
wishes, but the system produces many practical 
illustrations of that old German proverb, " a 
shilling earned is worth two shillings begged." 
It is a pleasure, at the same time, to know that 
all who will obey the fourth commandment, 
which as imperatively orders people to labour 
during six days of the week, as to rest on the 
seventh, may there find employment ; and I was 
much amused to hear, that when children are at 
work on the gravel walks, a shilling is frequent- 
ly concealed under the stones, that the first who 
rakes it up may receive this welcome reward for 
diligence and activity. 

What a curious contrast might be drawn be- 
tween the munificence of Lord Fife, who is said 
to distribute a larger income on gratuitous 
charity than any nobleman in Scotland, and the 
parsimony of his predecessor, Lord Braco, who 
picked up a farthing on his own approach once, 
and being earnestly importuned for it by a beg- 
gar, hurried the treasure into his pocket, saying, 
" Fin"" a farthing to yoursell, puir body !" This 



BANFF. 283 

old nobleman was so celebrated a miser, that I 
felt much inclined to sound the pannels and 
floors at Duff House, in search of hidden trea- 
sure. 

Several very primitive customs are still ob- 
served in this part of the country. When farmers 
come to market, they pay nothing at the inn for 
being lodged or entertained, but some time after- 
wards, " mine host" performs a tour of visits 
among all those who favoured him with their 
company, and then he graciously accepts pre- 
sents, according to the wealth or the gratitude 
of his ci-devant guests, who load him with hay, 
cheese, butter, eggs, or poultry, till, like the lady 
in Roman history, he is almost buried beneath 
the weight of gifts and offerings heaped upon him.' 
A very convenient custom is also observed by 
poor people, when about to marry upon nothing, 
who have what is appropriately called " a penny 
wedding." The happy couple call on each of 
their neighbours to announce the propitious 
event, and to enquire at the same time what the 
friends are willing to subscribe towards increas- 
ing and prolonging the comfort of their wedded 
life. At these marriages two hundred people 



284 BANFF. 

sometimes assemble, while no guests are expect- 
ed to appear without an offering in some shape 
or other, a loaf, a cheese, a bottle of whisky, or 
even, in cases of extreme poverty, half-a-dozen 
eggs. The entertainment which ensues is kept 
up occasionally for several days, and instead of 
bottle-sliders, on which to pass the bottles, they 
are frequently placed on blue bonnets. 

Every mortal is weary of listening to accounts 
of the melancholy festivities which take place at 
Highland funerals, but I could not help being 
amused to hear, that when three Strathspey 
lairds set out to attend the burial of the late 
Rothiemurchus, one of them gravely remarked, 
" How drunk we shall all be this time to-mor- 
row !" 

At a great chieftain's house where guests used 
formerly to be over the mast-head in claret and 
champagne, but where modern sobriety and de- 
corum have been introduced by the present pro- 
prietor, an old Highland laird was heard indig- 
nantly muttering to himself as he left the table, 
" Oich ! if this isn't the first time she ever dined 
at Castle Grant, and was able to go up the stairs 
by hersell.'" 



BANFF. 285 

I was shocked to hear that an old clergyman, 
well known for his convivial propensities, who 
died last year, wishing his funeral to become 
peculiarly jovial, bequeathed a large stock of 
claret for his friends to finish on the occasion, 
and his old boon companions standing in a circle 
round the grave, filled their glasses to his 
memory, and afterwards poured a share of the 
contents on the earth beneath which he was in- 
terred. 

The neat and cheerful town of Banff is pro- 
verbially alluded to by the Scotch as Coventry 
is in England. If one of the common people be 
angry at another, he exclaims in a tone of bit- 
terness, " Go to Banff !" I felt perfectly well 
satisfied, however, to visit this very respectable 
town, though often extremely indignant former- 
ly, at being told by our old nursery-maid to go 
there. The streets were clean and airy, though 
not particularly remarkable in any way, but pro- 
bably the inhabitants contrive to be very happy 
here, and if not, we cannot help them. 

The object of chief interest in this neighbour- 
hood is Duff House. The park seems many 
miles in circumference, beyond which, we admired 



1 



286 DUFF HOUSE. 



in every direction the fine fields brought into cul- 
tivation, and the flourishing hedges planted by 
Lord Fife, who has resided here uninterrupted- 
ly for some years past in strict seclusion, occu- 
pied in benefiting the place and people around. 
The style of architecture here, is, like most of 
Adams' plans, quite French, a tall, square, hand- 
some edifice, of massy proportions, ornamented 
with Corinthian pilasters, and externally scat- 
tered over with stone vases and statues, but the 
house is greatly in want of wings to give it light- 
ness. Within we found it perfectly Louvrized 
with pictures, all remarkably interesting, and 
many first rate works of art, at which criticism 
may vainly level her eye-glass. 

You never saw walls so crowded as these with 
heroes, statesmen, authors and beauties of for- 
mer days, every body, in short, who ever lived, 
and a great many more. We might have called 
over a muster-roll of all the celebrated names 
in Scotland, or elsewhere, and the answer would 
be, "Here!" It appeared like living a century 
in an hour, when we paraded through ten or 
twelve large rooms, glancing along the line of 
celebrated personages, whose names had once 



DUFF HOUSE. 287 

resounded throughout the world. How many 
stories and remembrances rushed into our 
thoughts as we contemplated the features with 
which they had passed through life, and tried to 
trace an expression suited to their well-known 
characters and adventures. It was a singular 
panorama! The great, the good, the wicked, 
and the profligate, all side by side in a strange 
equality, that seemed like that of the grave 
itself! Among other odd combinations, we ob- 
served one uncongenial quartette, consisting of 
Dr. Dodd, Dean Swift, George Buchanan, and 
lastly, John Knox, of whom the Regent Morton 
said in his funeral panegyric, " There lies he 
who never feared the face of man." He was, 
indeed, one who, to use the language of Shake- 
speare, " took the buffets and rewards of fortune 
with equal thanks," being singly and solely de- 
voted to the cause he had embraced; but in 
the collision of opposite opinions, how carefully 
should the very best of Christians guard against 
excess! Our venerable Scottish reformer was 
far from desiring that wide devastation among 
our churches for which his own words seemed 
to give a license, when he said, " Pull down the 



288 DUFF HOUSE. 

nests, and the rooks will fly," and for utter- 
ing which, Dr. Johnson said, he should have 
been buried in the highway ; but those who 
once rouse the multitude to violence, might as 
well throw down the bars of a menagerie, and 
expect still to master the powerful and dan- 
gerous inhabitants. In the one case as much as 
in the other, the weak govern the strong by intel- 
lectual superiority, but the moment mere animal 
force comes into play, this aspect of affairs is 
entirely reversed. 

The old housekeeper here, a well-known per- 
sonage, who has been sixty years in office, hav- 
ing learned by rote, a list of the pictures and 
artists, makes most amusing havoc of the fo- 
reign names, " Sir Francis Kennawlis for Knol- 
lys, and Sir Godfrey Kennawler," but she was 
peculiarly perplexed by the approximation of 
names between a fat laughing Moliere, and a 
dark Spanish looking Murillo. The good woman 
would have a poor chance of toleration from the 
gentleman who broke off his marriage with a 
young lady, because she betrayed such ignorance 
as not to know the difference between Mrs. 
INlontagu and Lady Mary Wortley Montague ! 



DUFF HOUSE. 289 

One of the best pictures here, a miniature in 
oil, of a philosopher contemplating a skull, was 
painted by the celebrated blacksmith. Van Eyck, 
— not HandeFs harmonious blacksmith, but one 
of still greater notoriety. 

We admired, in one room, a conclave of 
blooming beauties, all associated together with- 
out very special reference to rank or character, 
but each apparently balloted for on the score 
of pre-eminent loveliness. No eastern harem de- 
scribed by Lady Mary Wortley Montague could 
produce a group of Sultanas at all to be com- 
pared with Lucy Waters, Lady Carlisle, Jane 
Shore, Lady Castlemain, the Countess of Coven- 
try, Queen Mary, the Duchess of Portsmouth, 
or Nell Grwyn — a pretty set in every sense! 
AVhat some people would call mixed society — 
or rather unmixed, where none were quite re- 
spectable. 

Ah ! Shore could tell what ills from beauty spring, 
And Sedley curs'd the charms which pleased a king. 

Several of these ladies wore hoops, expanding 
their dresses till they looked like a tent, covering 
half an acre of carpet, but though costumes in- 



290 DUFF HOUSE. 

vented by the caprice of fashion become, in a 
few years, ludicrous even in the eyes of those 
who wore them, such lovely features, moulded 
into beauty by nature's own magical touch, are 
admired alike in every succeeding age, and in 
every varied rank. 

One of the most curious portraits here, is a 
full-length in black, representing the Duchess 
of Richmond, by Vandyke. Her Grace looks 
as if she had lived on nothing more solid all her 
life than poetry and sentiment, reading an elegy 
for breakfast, and a sonnet for dinner. The 
matrimonial part of her history is much more 
extraordinary than fiction! She married first 
a wealthy man of low origin, who very com- 
plaisantly died soon, leaving her a rich widow. 
Having been next engaged to Sir George Rod- 
ney, he was treacherously jilted for the Earl of 
Hertford, on which occasion her disappointed 
lover penned a farewell letter in his own blood, 
and killed himself. Her second husband, the 
Earl, having in due time expired, she mounted 
another step in the ladder of preferment by 
marrying the Duke of Richmond, and being 
once more set at liberty, her ambition aspired 



DUFF HOUSE. 291 

to a crown, and she set her widow's cap at old 
King James the I., who actually proved invul- 
nerable, and thus cruelly stopped the career of 
her promotion, when she had probably often so- 
liloquized, like Lady Macbeth, " Glamis and 
Cawdor ! the greatest is behind !" 

We admired much a lovely picture of the 
young Chevalier St. George when a boy, dressed 
in crimson and gold. The Chevalier D'Eon ap- 
peared also, in full uniform, his face like the 
knocker on a door ; and not far off Colonel Gar- 
diner, the hero of Prestonpans, a fine military- 
looking figure in full caparison for battle, 
wearing a pair of jack boots so enormous that 
you wonder how he ever got into them, or is 
ever to get out. There never died on the field 
of battle a braver soldier or a better Christian, 
and most heroically did he realize his word, that 
"' having one life to sacrifice for the good of his 
country, he would not spare it !" His own 
regiment fled, but he cheered on another which 
had been deprived of its colonel, and was twice 
severely wounded before receiving the mortal 
l)low of which he died. Then havinrr finished 
his earthly duties, we may believe and hope, 



292 DUFF HOUSE. 

that his emancipated spirit experienced the 
truth of that faith in which he had a short time 
previously said, " Let me die when it shall 
please God ! I am sure I shall go to the mansions 
of eternal glory, and enjoy my God and my 
Redeemer in heaven for ever."" 

A portrait is here of George the Second, who 
seems intending to be dignified, but looks as if 
he were beginning a minuet ; and the first Earl 
and Countess of Fife are represented in robes, 
as if walking at a coronation. The Admirable 
Crichton makes a noble appearance in the crowd, 
— that hero possessing almost fabulous gifts and 
accomplishments, who was treacherously assas- 
sinated at the age of twenty-two, by his pupil, 
the Duke of Medina's profligate son. There is 
a wonderful intensity of expression, like life it- 
self, in all the portraits of this remarkable be- 
ing, and his conversation was so brilliant and 
captivating that people held in their breath 
when he spoke. 

The Constable of Bourbon's is an interesting 
portrait ; and Lord Chesterfield is here, looking 
polite even on canvas. 

If I might assume the appearance of any one 



DUFF HOUSE. 293 

I chose, you would see me return with the coun- 
tenance of Mrs. Abingdon, who is represented 
archly glancing out from behind a curtain, with 
so animated an expression, and such a glow of 
youth and loveliness, that it would enliven any 
one to look at her. Even the great moralist 
Dr. Johnson found this lady irresistibly fascinat- 
ing, and when rallied by a daring friend for 
having; o-one to the theatre once when she 
acted, he replied, " When the public cares the 
thousandth part for you that it does for her, I 
will go to your benefit too !"" Madame de 
Montespan's portrait might be an imaginary 
houri in paradise, it is of such unearthly beauty, 
but without a spark of intellect, and not at all 
likely to have captivated Lavater. 

Two peeresses might dispute the palm here of 
personal pre-eminence. The notorious Duchess 
of Cleveland, full length, in blue velvet, and the 
late Duchess of Gordon, wearing her robes of 
state, and looking like majesty personified. I 
could write on for ever about this gallery, which 
might comprise a history of all mankind, and 
womankind also, but you will begin to complain 



294 DUFF HOUSE. 

that my letter is all velvet gowns and damask 
curtains. 

" Lastly, and to conclude," as clergymen say 
in their sermons, we observed a portrait in Rae- 
burn's best style, of Lord Fife himself, wearing 
his undress military uniform, when he com- 
manded the Inverness-shire militia, and so like 
that any old soldier in passing must have 

saluted. But an extinguisher has fallen over 

my paper, and it is time to cut myself short, 
though that is scarcely possible now, after cover- 
ing nearly a yard and a half of letter paper. 
You have seen the sympathetic ink which be- 
comes visible only when held to the fire, but I 
wish mine may disappear as soon as you begin 
to think me " dull, stale, flat, or unprofitable." 
As people say that a letter should be a sort of 
family newspaper, you may now consider my 
name as recorded among the fashionable de- 
partures from Banff. 



295 



F Y V I E. 



Now planning much, now changing what we plann'd, 
Pleased by each trial, not by failures vexed, 
And ever certain to succeed the next ; 

Quick to resolve, and easy to persuade . 

Crab BE. 

My dear Cousin, — If you ever wish to study 
" the greatest happiness principle," make a tour 
in the Highlands, and be not over particular 
about accommodation, for the instant travellers 
become too anxious about comfort, all comfort 
is at an end, and I care little for the vicissitudes 
of carpets or no carpets, arm-chairs or three- 
logged stools, as long as everything is clean, and 
we get no practical illustrations in our sleeping 
apartments of entomology, — or damp-ology, the 
greatest bugbear of all on a journey. 



296 FYVIE. 



m 



Without meaning a disrespectful thought of 
any other county, I must say there are none 
superior to Aberdeenshire for interest and 
grandeur, both natural and architectural. Fyvie 
Castle, built in the time of Robert Bruce, being 
considered one of the most extensive, picturesque, 
and ancient edifices in Scotland. A resolv- 
ed, coufe qui coute, to take a glimpse of it, little 
anticipating what the cost would be, for it turn- 
ed out an adventure of first rate annoyance and 
difficulty, but " all is well that ends well." A 
stage-coach passes daily within half a mile of 
the little village of Fyvie, about dinner-time, so 
we resolved to be dropped there one morning, 
and to be picked up the next, thus allowing time 
to scrutinize the Castle before proceeding to 
Aberdeen. 

After making a good start from Banff, there 
came on such a down-pour of rain, that it was 
quite a natural curiosity for heaviness, and con- 
tinued to fall with unremitting diligence till 
night. In short, it was what Matthews de- 
scribed as " a dreepin"' wat day," and when we 
paused at the turnpike to alight, I could not 
but hesitate about being drowned altogether in 



FYVIE. 297 

attempting to gain a glimpse at Fyvie Castle. 
The road seemed one unfathomable depth of 
mud, and we had half a mile to wade before 
reaching the inn! No rational being would 
have attempted it, but I had seen a most ec- 
centric looking porter's lodge, which excit- 
ed my unbounded curiosity, as a sample of 
what might be seen, and several persons strong- 
ly recommended us riot to be easily discouraged, 
and made light of the distance — made still 
lighter of the rain, and when 1 enquired what 
sort of inn we were likely to find at Fyvie, a 
factor who lived near, protested it was " clean 
and tidy, though not very large." All this 
sounded exceedingly plausible, till I discovered, 
on alighting, that this personage, who had been 
shivering outside, wished to fill up our vacant 
seats within, and hurried off, wishing us " a 
pleasant evening!" 

After a most. fatiguing promenade beneath a 
perfect cascade of rain, we reached the village, 
and looked about in vain for any sign, or signs 
to indicate the Royal Hotel of Fyvie. No " Red 
Lion," or " Blue Goat," or " Aberdeen Arms" 
could be seen, but I was at last directed to a 



298 FYVIE. 

small cottage, looking like the wing of an ad- 
joining grocers shop. Here we found the land- 
lady drinking tea, and surrounded by a nume- 
rous family of untidy children, and the whole 
party seemed to be struck speechless with con- 
sternation at the unwonted apparition of tra- 
vellers, Chaucer tells us, the Queen of the 
Fairies once positively promised, that no wo- 
man should ever, on any occasion, be at a loss 
for an answer, but her majesty was faithless on 
this occasion, as none seemed to suggest itself 
now, when we requested the worthy hostess to 
provide us with rooms, and, indeed, the case at 
first wore a most unpromising aspect. The only 
suit of apartments in her house consisted of one 
sitting-room, containing a sort of contrivance 
which called itself a bed, and across the pas- 
sage was a closet, about six feet square, with a 
borrowed light, and containing a small sofa-bed, 
into which a traveller, whatever his dimensions 
might be, must contrive, like a soldier forcing 
on regimental shoes, to fit himself, whether they 
fit or not. 

Even these apartments it would have been 
too much happiness to find disengaged, but a 



FYVIE. 299 

stranger had arrived some hours before, antl se- 
cured the parlour-of-all-work, where he was now 
drinking tea ! What an idea of unspeakable 
hixury and comfort it gave me at this moment 
to hear of any one in the full enjoyment of a 
fire and a cup of hot tea ! I never knew their 
value before! 

You are acquainted with a gentleman who 
locked his door, and pretended to be asleep one 
night at an inn, when he saw a party of ladies 
arrive, who could not, he was aware, be accom- 
modated, and for whom he had determined not 
to discompose himself, but Mr. Menzies, the 
fortunate occupant of the first and only floor 
at Fyvie, was quite of a different school, and 
having accidentally heard of our arrival, he, 
with the most chivalrous politeness, insisted on 
relinquishing the whole house, and hurried off 
in the rain, saying he could depend upon being 
welcome at the clergyman's hospitable manse, 
where he intended now to remain. 

We had scarcely time to express our thanks 
before he vanished, leaving not a trace behind, 
and we proceeded without loss of time, to ex- 



300 FYVIE. 

amine into the capabilities of the larder at Fy- 
vie, where the bill of fare for dinner being a to- 
tal blank, we found it would be imprudent to 
quarrel with our bread and butter, and sat down 
with the best of all appetites to tea. You know 
of one gentleman who lets an inn near his moors, 
on condition that the landlord shall make it 
too uncomfortable for any traveller or sports- 
man to think of remaining there ; and I can bear 
testimony in favour of the worthy host there, 
that for breakfast we had tea without cream, salt 
butter, oatcakes, and porridge, but if there be 
ever a vacancy in the management of that con- 
cern, I could recommend a very efficient succes- 
sor not a hundred miles from Fyvie. 

We were in the act of laughing over all our 
discomforts, when the door opened, and our good 
genius Mr. Menzies appeared, accompanied by 
the parish clergyman, who, the moment he 
heard of our predicament, had " cloaked, um- 
brellaM," and hurried over to us with so cordial 
an invitation to his fire-side, that before half 
an hour elapsed, we were comfortably domesti- 
cated with our reverend friend and his sister, 



FYVIE. 301 

in their pretty little sitting-room, leaving to Mr. 
Menzies the luxurious accommodation of the 
inn. 

This evening passed away most enchantingly, 
though my happiness was rather impaired by 
one very teasing perplexity. No imaginable de- 
vice could enable me to discover the name of our 
very hospitable host! I clandestinely examined 
the title-pages of two Bibles on the table, think- 
ing his designation must be inscribed there, but 
the only information conveyed I knew already, 
as the inscription was, " Manse of Fy vie ! " 
The silver forks and spoons at supper were 
equally uncommunicative; I could not see the 
cover of an old letter in any quarter to assist 
me ! In short, my ingenuity was balked on 
every side, till next morning, when it acciden- 
tally occurred to me, that I had not yet ex- 
amined the corner of a towel, on which, to my 
great relief, I discovered the name of our friend 
and benefactor, Mr. Manson, which we shall 
certainly not forget, connected as it is with the 
recollection of such a deliverance, followed by 
so agreeable an evening. 

Dr. Patterson, author of " The Manse Gar- 



302 FYVIE. 

den," might see his book reduced to practice 
here, where the flower-beds are in brilliant 
order, and the vegetables fit to gain the prize at 
any competition. The perfection of order around 
this " glebe," is said to be quite in harmony 
with the good order of a whole parish under 
similar superintendence, for in everything be- 
longing to any individual, we generally trace the 
same spirit of activity or of indolence, and I 
have often observed, that as a straw tells how 
the wind blows, even the aspect of a gentleman's 
lodge may be considered a tolerably fair criterion 
of how the whole estate is managed. The con- 
cerns of others are not likely to meet with the 
best attention from any one who is lazy about 
his own, or who must use, on mere temporal 
affairs, the melancholy language of Scripture, 
" Mine own vineyard have I not kept !" but in 
this small district we found three schools in ad- 
mirable order, which were inspected by Mr. 
Menzies, the trustee appointed to examine the 
three counties in which Mr. Dick's legacy to 
schoolmasters must be distributed, and who re- 
ported them all to be extremely efficient. 

I crossed the village churchyard, through a 



FYVIE. 303 

wilderness of wet grass, and sheltered by an 
umbrella, to visit the grave-stone, adorned with 
hour-glasses and skulls, of Annie Smith, a mil- 
ler's daughter, who was heroine of that much 
esteemed old ballad, " Tifty's Annie."" This 
young lady, having been admired by the Laird 
of Fyvie, who offered to marry her, she unfor- 
tunately preferred the trumpeter of the Castle, 
and perseveringly discouraged his masters suit. 
Her brother, after vainly endeavouring to extin- 
guish her disinterested preference of this long- 
winded lover, at last became so furiously irritat- 
ed, that, in a paroxysm of rage, he struck her 
violently. The fair Annie, being of very sensi- 
tive feelings, never recovered the shock, but 
pined away and died. During her last moments, 
she entreated to be turned towards the tower of 
Fyvie Castle, where her favoured lover was 
usually to be seen blowing his trumpet ; and after 
his decease, the generous Laird of Fyvie himself 
erected a leaden image of his more successful 
rival, which is now conspicuously to be seen 
blowing his trumpet towards the mill of Tifty, 
and thus commemorating that melancholy tra- 
gedy. The old ballad is extremely interesting. 



304 FYVIE. 

and several of the verses show off the aristocra 
tic lover to immense advantage. 

" Her father struck her wondrous sore, 
As also did her mother ; 
Her sisters always did her scorn ; 
But woe be to her brother. 

Lord Fyvie he did wring his hands, 
Said, ' Alas ! for Tif tie's Annie,' 
The fairest flow'r's cut down by love. 
That e'er sprung up in Fyvie. 

woe betide Mill o' Tiftie's pride. 
He might have let them marry ; 

1 should have giv'n them both to live 
Into the lands of Fyvie. 

Ye parents grave, who children have. 
In crushing them be canny, 
Lest when too late you do repent, — 
Remember Tiftie's Annie." 

In the same churchyard we saw a beautifully 
sculptured monument to the Honourable General 
Gordon, representing a phoenix rising out of the 
flames, which might have been considered a fine 
Christian emblem, but I was disappointed to ob- 
serve only an inscription from Ovid in Latin. 
Our sympathy with the dead is only perpetuated 



I 



FYVIE CASTLE. 305 

when we find a record of that Christian faith and 
hope, which must ultimately bring all who really 
felt it, into one happy and everlasting home, but 
a heathen poem, beautiful as it may be, speaks 
of nothing beyond the grave, and is, therefore, 
unsuitable on a tomb-stone, that solemn me- 
mento, closing over all the earthly concerns of a 
mortal being, and intimating, whether in the 
language of Scx'ipture or not, that his spirit has 
been summoned into the awful presence of our 
eternal Creator. 

Next morning we laid siege to Fyvie Castle, 
which looks like the Methusalem of old houses, 
and ought to be placed in the Antiquarian Mu- 
seum. The gate is a perfect cluster of steeples, 
and the same pointed towers adorn the edifice 
itself, each surmounted on its lofty pinnacle by 
fantastic leaden figures, placed in every variety 
of attitude. They give it somewhat the look of 
a magician''s enchanted dwelling, where the pri- 
soners have been turned into stone, and I sup- 
pose any daring knight who can blow a blast on 
the trumpet of Tifty's Annie's lover, will see the 
whole crumble into powder. 

Large as this magnificent old castle is, a per- 



300 FYVIE CASTLE. 



n 



feet romance in stone and mortar, the more 
ancient half was taken down some years ago, 
having become ruinous, and threatening a down- 
fall. The entrance, through a wall nine feet 
thick, is defended by an outside door, studded 
with massy knobs of iron, and within that 
powerful defence stands a cross-barred gate of 
singular construction, so complicated in work- 
manship, that the neighbouring blacksmith con- 
fessed he could not divine how it was manufac- 
tured. We hazarded about six guesses, which 
were all proved to be wrong ; and as no one 
living is in the secret, I " gave it up !" In the 
lower part of the south-western tower, there is 
said to be an arched room which, having neither 
door nor window, is totally inaccessible ; but 
under such circumstances there can only be a 
conjectural knowledge of its existence at all. 

What was formerly the prison at Fyvie 
Castle is now metamorphosed into the wine 
cellar, where people must be locked out, instead 
of being locked in. We were not, of course, 
made free of the cellar, but I became greatly 
interested in seeing the fire-proof charter-room, 
quite an appalling dungeon, entirely lined with 



PYVIE CASTLE. 307 

iron. A second closet within was exhibited, 
the iron dooi- of which requires the strength of 
two persons to open ; and when the housekeeper 
desired me to walk in, I thought, with a shud- 
der, of " The iron shroud," and of " The misle- 
toe bough." If ever I am afflicted with a night- 
mare, I shall certainly fancy myself shut up by 
a spring-lock in that old dungeon at Fyvie 
Castle ! Our cicerone observed, with some 
humour, in allusion to a certain very recent 
robbery, " This is a safer place than the bank 
at Aberdeen !" 

In all ray experience of housekeepers, which 
has not been small, I never met with one so 
shrewd and intelligent as the lady in waiting 
here. The Aberdeenshire people are noted in 
Scotland for being alarmingly clever, very much 
as the Yorkshiremen are in England, therefore, 
I supposed at first, that our mistress of the 
ceremonies might be considered, perhaps, at the 
ordinary average of Aberdeen talent ; but we 
were afterwards told, that her case is peculiar, 
even in that neighbourhood. If ever we hurried 
past anything worthy of notice, she eagerly 
summoned us back, repeatedly begged me to bo 



308 PYVIE CASTLE. 



1 



more at leisure, and when I admired a quantity 
of beautiful coloured silk embroidery, adorned 
with flowers, which actually beat nature out and 
out, done by the Countess of Aberdeen, remark- 
ing, at the same time, that ladies were scarcely 
so industrious in the present day, she complai- 
sently replied, that " ladies now have many 
better occupations." 

When our visit drew towards a close, 
the good woman insisted beyond measure, 
that we should accept a glass of wine ! a 
flight of fancy quite beyond the imagination 
of any ordinary housekeeper ; and though we 
positively declined the offer, yet I very gladly 
availed myself of a pressing invitation to inspect 
her own room. Here the walls were hung 
round with a perfect General Assembly of 
clergymen, as large as life, dressed in their full 
canonicals, and positively you have often paid 
your shilling for seeing a worse exhibition. It 
was pleasing to behold so numerous a collection 
of Scottish worthies, though in general I admire 
the principle expressed by a Swiss clergyman, 
who declined sitting for his portrait, even at the 
earnest request of an attached congregation, on 



FYVIE CASTLE. 309 

the ground of that text, " We preach not our- 
selves, but Jesus Christ the Lord."'"' Owing to 
the affectionate partiahty of many parishioners, 
we see in almost every exhibition of pictures a 
large proportion of clergymen, — then follows 
the advertisement of a print, price L.l,ls. — ■ 
and some years afterwards appears a posthu- 
mous memoir and frontispiece, edited by the 
son or nephew, who feels called upon to publish 
a " private diary," professedly intended for no 
eye but those of the writer and his own children. 
It is a great pity that persons who write such 
very confidential documents never seem to hit 
on the only sure plan of keeping them private, 
which can be very easily accomplished by the 
application of a taper, or by a short cut into 
the fire-place. Nothing should be more avoided, 
by those who profess Christian integrity, than 
to record thoughts and actions, under pretext 
that they shall remain unseen and unknown, 
when all the time a consciousness is felt, that 
the whole world shall hereafter be invited to 
peep over the author's shoulder, and read what 
has been said. The first attempt we find in 
the line of public privacy, was made by Horace 



310 



FYVIE CASTLE. 



Walpole, in his entertaining letters, and since 
his time, those who stood the very highest for 
talent, and even for piety, have not disdained to 
wear the same flimsy veil, avoiding the respon- 
sibility of their own act, by throwing the blame 
upon survivors, and, as Dr. Johnson said, leaving 
a loaded gun behind them, which they have the 
inclination but not the courage to fire. 

The broad fine staircase at Fyvie Castle is 
considered quite unique, and might be a study 
for any architect. It is ornamented with armo- 
rial bearings, and built in a succession of lofty 
arches, all placed at right angles, each flight 
of steps forming an arch over the flight beneath, 
so that we seemed to be ascending a pyramid 
of tunnels, caves, or bridges, all carved in nearly 
soHd stone. The effect is most singular. 

It has been unhandsomely alleged, that tar- 
tan was first invented by the poor of Scotland, 
who could find nothing but rags of various 
colours to clothe themselves in ; and it has also 
been conjectured, that a clan-tartan is like a 
coat of arms, different colours being peculiar to 
different families, so that those who were allied 
to the Stuarts adopted a stripe of red, and 



FYVIE CASTLE. 311 

when they intermarried with the Bruces, a stripe 
of black was added; but all these assertions 
seem fabulous. Tartan is not supposed to be a 
very ancient manufacture, as none is to be seen on 
the oldest pictures. The Gordon plaid is one of 
thchandsomest, and makes admirable furniture in 
some of the rooms here, enlivened by the family 
badge of a thistle on every chair. I like heraldic 
furniture, with as many coronets, crests, and 
([uarterings as can be reasonably introduced, 
and quite admired the King of Wirtemberg for 
mounting regal crowns on his birds' cages. 

Every genuine Highland clan wears some 
peculiar plant as a badge of distinction ; and 
you should always see the Macdonalds, on state 
occasions, mount a sprig of heather, the Mac- 
gregors carrying the pine, the Grahams and 
Gordons with a thistle, the Sinclairs living 
upon clover, and the Buchanans still armed 
with a birch rod, which they adopted, I suppose, 
in commemoration of King James"* tutor. 

Fyvie Castle changed proprietors frequently in 
former days. Originally the property of Sir 
Henry Preston, one of the many lowlanders 
\\hom Robert Bruce transplanted to this neigh- 



312 PYVIE CASTLE. 

bourliood, it afterwards escaped to the Meldrum 
family, and then settled for some time in posses- 
sion of the Chancellor, Earl of Dunfermline, 
whose arms are sculptured on the Castle in every 
direction, inside and out, with full length inscrip- 
tions to commemorate his reign. This estate 
was finally purchased by the present proprietor''s 
grandfather, Lord Aberdeen, when he married 
for his second wife the Duke of Gordon's daugh- 
ter, and the property was given to her eldest 
son. General Gordon, whose portrait we greatly 
admired, being one of the best visible in this 
house, or perhaps in any other. The frame is 
hung round with the standards of his regiment, 
festooned in loose draperies, which add greatly 
to the effect of his handsome uniform, and fine 
military aspect. He is equipped in full High- 
land garb, his plaid streaming in the wind, his 
cap raised in his hand, and his broad-sword ex- 
tended in the air. Nothing can be more spirited 
and striking ! This fine picture seems meant to 
illustrate the family motto, " Follow Fortune." 
The General has evidently kicked down the Coli- 
seum in passing, for it lies in ruins behind 
him, and he is rapidly ascending over broken 



ABERDEEN. 313 

pillars, cornices, and columns, to where Fortune 
sits aloft, ready to crown him with her choicest 
gifts, among which we must acknowledge, that 
Fyvie Castle was not the least ! 

You would be in ecstacies with the park, varied 
by a river, a lake, a forest of noble trees, and 
flocks of sheep, which seem to understand the 
picturesque, they scatter themselves so judicious- 
ly over the sloping banks, and, in short, the only 
fault that can be invented for this never-to-be- 
enough-admired place is, its being so outrageous- 
ly difficult to reach. 

During our journey from Fyvie to Aberdeen, 
we saw several stony fields, most of which have 
now been improved into fertility, at a vast ex- 
penditure of labour, while others being perfectly 
paved across, no labour could improve. You 
might fancy in some parts of this country, that 
it rained stones instead of water ! and towards 
the west, where rocks abound most, the super- 
fluous stones are swallowed up in what is called 
an " Aberdeenshire dyke,"" built about six feet 
high, and twenty or thirty feet broad, fit for a 
waggon to be driven on, and looking as if mate- 



314 ABERDEEN. 

rials had been collected for erecting a village. 
The operation of extracting these rocks from 
the ground, is like drawing teeth out of their 
sockets, but after inflicting so painful a process, 
the agriculturist must have more than common 
pleasure, in seeing the best entertainment for 
man and horse, turnips, wheat, oats, and bar- 
ley, all flourishing around him. 

In Aberdeenshire, the enthusiasm lasted longer 
than in any other county for Charles Edward's 
family. The gardener at Lord Saltoun's proved 
so staunch to the cause, that when some officers 
on the Protestant side were visiting his master, 
a bet was laid that nothing could induce him to 
drink King George's health. Accordingly he 
was sent for, and the senior captain making 
him a handsome present, said he had heard 
much of his high character, and proposed that 
they should unite ' in pledging a bumper to 
King George's health. The sturdy Jacobite 
raised his glass and drank it off", saying em- 
phatically, " Here's to our rightfu' and lawfu' 
King !" The Captain started up in a rage, 
saying, " Why, you rascal ! that's not King 



ABERDEEN. 315 

George V To which the other slyly replied, 
with a nod, " Fm vera muckle o' your way o' 
thinking, Sir !" 

Dr. Johnson remarks, " it seems like frivo- 
lous ostentation to write a solemn geographi- 
cal description of any city in our own island, as 
if we had been cast on some newly discovered 
coast." Here we are now at Aberdeen, the 
Oxford of Scotland, where, during many centu- 
ries past, whenever strangers pre-eminent for 
rank or learning arrived, the magistrates called 
in procession, and presented them with a bum- 
per of wine in the ancient and illustrious " Cup 
of Bon Accord," but either the custom is now 
discontinued, or they have not yet heard of our 
arrival ! ! This town is equally celebrated for 
its haddocks and its professors, both being 
incomparably excellent in their line, and hav- 
ing long enjoyed great and deserved popula- 
rity. Diplomas are not given so promiscuous- 
ly here as formerly ; but I once knew three Eng- 
lish schoolmasters who had been created doctors 
at Aberdeen; and Dr. Johnson said of one Scotch 
university, that it had got rich " by Degrees." 
My late father, who, besides receiving diplomas 



316 ABERDEEN. 

from twenty-five foreign societies, was member 
of almost every literary and scientific institution 
at home, once received a humorous letter from 
his old cotemporary. Sir Adam Fergusson, di- 
rected to him as usual, and then followed, 
" A.M.— F.R.S.— TUVWXYZ." 

In the college here may be seen the most ter- 
rifying portraits of our 106 Scottish monarchs, 
from a period cotemporary with the time of 
Abraham, to the present day, the whole suc- 
cession being painted, I believe, by one artist, 
who should have been hung instead of his pic- 
tures. 

Mackray's hotel would be a perfect paragon 
of comfort, were it not for a set of noisy tra- 
vellers recently arrived, who never tire of ring- 
ing the bells, so we have a merry peal from mor- 
ning till night, and all night besides. Those 
who are least accustomed to have servants at 
command, become most arbitrary at an inn, and 
like to agitate the waiters, who are flying about 
the house like lamplighters to-night, and have 
burst into our quiet room several times by mis- 
take in the hurry of hearing so many conflicting 
hcAh. You have not probably forgotten the old 



ABERDEEN. 317 

housekeeper who used to tell us formerly, that 
she had saved money all her life in order to be 
a lady for one week, and the chief part of her 
projected dignity seemed to consist in arriving 
at a hotel, dressed in a silk gown, and in ringing 
for the waiters as often as she pleased! I have 
never since observed people particularly severe 
on the bell-ropes, without thinking that they 
must have as short an allowance of consequence 
and authority. 

Being informed on Sunday, that Bishop Skin- 
ner intended to preach at the Episcopal Chapel, 
I went to hear him, but was shocked on enter- 
ing, to behold, near the door, a fine full-length 
monumental statue in white marble, by Flaxman, 
bearing the solemn inscription, " Sacred to the 
Memory of Bishop Skinner!" I stood petrified 
with astonishment at this very sudden catastro- 
phe ! How could it have escaped the waiters, 
who had all combined in assuring me he was to 
preach! Not many minutes afterwards, how- 
ever, a clergyman, exactly resembling the marble 
image, stood face to face before it, gravely tak- 
ing his station in the reading-desk, and commen- 
ced divine service, but it was not till the whole 



318 ABERDEEN. 

had been concluded that the mystery was cleared 
up. I then ascertained, that the episcopal dig- 
nity has continued hereditary in the same family 
for two generations, and that the venerable fa- 
ther of the present Bishop is commemorated by 
this monument. The surprise was as great to 
me, but not quite so unpleasant, as that of a 
gentleman who lately observed a beautiful ma- 
caw sitting so immoveably on a pole, that, never 
doubting the bird was stuffed, he walked close 
up, to examine the plumage, and only discovered 
his mistake, when it seized him by the nose. 

Aberdeen has always testified peculiar par- 
tiality for the Episcopalian church, and the inha- 
bitants have recently erected a very handsome 
chapel, which cost L.6000, with a painted glass 
window, copied from Carlo Dolci's picture of 
our Saviour blessing the sacred symbols. In 
the Rev. Edward Ramsay's very interesting ser- 
mon on behalf of th6 Scottish Episcopal Church 
Society, we find a picture drawn of clerical po- 
verty and privation, not to be imagined or be- 
lieved without such testimony as he brings. One 
clergyman in the north derives at present, from 
two congregations, an income of only L,.30, an- 



ABERDEEN. 319 

other receives only L.20 per annum, a third an- 
nounces his professional income to be L.2, an- 
other had a living, if it could be called a living, 
of L.12, and the last I shall mention was starv- 
ing on L.6!! Some of these worthy divines 
have congregations sufficiently wealthy, but I 
have generally observed, that the two professions 
to which we owe the deepest obligations are 
those that people feel most unwilling to remu- 
nerate, the doctor and the clergyman. 

In one church at Aberdeen, we heard the 
most distorted attempt at English ever pro- 
mulgated from a pulpit. It was very little 
easier to understand than if the preacher had 
been speaking on the plan recommended by an 
Irishman to a Highlander who addressed him 
in Gaelic, " Can't you turn your tongue the 
other way, and spake English !" Not a single 
vowel got fair play on this occasion, for Scotch- 
men who wish to be peculiarly correct, generally 
omit them entirely; and the prepositions, which 
puzzle our northern grammarians more than can 
be conceived, were all on duty in the wrong place. 
If public speakers would only deal in plain, ho- 
nest, broad Scotch, as the late Lord Melville 



320 ABERDEEN. 

used to do, it becomes perfectly comprehensible 
even to a cockney, but the distorted dialects 
people invent for themselves to conceal a pro- 
vincial accent, become, to most listeners, quite 
an unknown tongue. 

Several streets in the venerable town of Aber- 
deen are exceedingly handsome, but being built 
of granite so very hard, that iron instruments 
are frequently broken in attempting to work it, 
the buildings are almost entirely without orna- 
ment, in what architects would probably term 
" a severe style." No trimmings are to be seen 
around the windows, which look as if they were 
merely patched on the surface of a bare wall, — 
no decorations or porticos over the doors, but 
high, naked-looking piles of stone arise on every 
side, of a cold blue-ish white, which it chills one 
to look at. How different from the rich warm 
tint, like oiseau de paradis, on the free-stone of 
Elgin ; yet certainly Union Street is undeniably 
magnificent, and the bridge of a single arch 
stupendous. 

The late M.P.for this county, Mr. Fergusson 
of Pitfour, used to give the result of his Par- 
liamentary experience in these words, which 



DUNOTTAR CASTLE. 321 

would astonish statesmen of the present day, 
who are all, we hope, so very different — " I have 
" represented Aberdeenshire for half a century, 
" during which, I never was present at a debate 
*' I could avoid, nor absent from a division I 
" could get to. I have heard many speeches 
" that convinced my judgment, but none that 
" ever influenced my vote. I once, and only 
" once, voted on my own opinion, but that was 
" the most erroneous vote I ever gave. He 
" who would be easy in Parliament, must al- 
" ways support administration, but never take 
" ofiice." 

Fourteen miles south of Aberdeen may be 
found the picturesque and extensive ruin of 
Dunottar Castle, seat of the Keiths, Earls 
Marischal of Scotland, whose origin is so lost in 
antiquity, that they are conjectured to have 
been Princes of the Oatti in Germany, before 
the Bourbon or Austrian dynasties were heard 
of. The catastrophe of 1715 caused this ancient 
title to be forfeited ; but the last Earl nobly 
represented his long line of ancestry, for he be- 
came the chosen and distinguished friend of 
Frederick the Great, and his brother, Marshal 



322 DUNOTTAR CASTLE. 

Keith, need only be named, to recall the most 
chivalrous recollections of bravery and general- 
ship. The Empress of Russia presented him 
with a sword valued at L.1500, as a small testi- 
mony of her esteem, and after a life of warlike 
achievements, he died victoriously on the field of 
battle. These were two of the most distin- 
guished brothers Scotland ever produced. The 
site of Dunottar Castle is in the ocean, perched 
on a high peninsula, nearly the whole of which 
is covered by the walls, which surround a spa- 
cious court. 

A gentleman once remarked of a dull visitor, 
" what a pity he is not ill-natured, as that 
would be an excuse for turning him out of the 
room ;" and you may probably begin to think, 
if this rather dry letter goes on much longer, 
that, spiced with a little peevishness, it might 
be quite fit for the fire ; so leaving you to make 
the best of it, as you always do of everything, I 
remain — at Aberdeen, as much as any where 
else— your affectionate cousin. 



323 



CASTLE FRASER. 



Lady Percy. " What is it carries you away ?" 
Hotspur, " Why ! a horse, madam, a horse." 

My dear Cousin, — It occurs to me at this 
moment, as being curious, in how many diiferent 
things people can be identified. When present 
by their features, when absent by their voices, 
and even, when out of both sight and hearing, 
by their handwriting. All are so peculiar to 
the individual, that I begin to think the collect- 
ing of autographs a perfectly respectable pursuit, 
as they certainly give some insight into charac- 
ter ; therefore, next time you write to me, take 
your best pen, in case of appearing in my 
album. I suppose the Duke of Wellington and 
O'Connell never accept an invitation to dinner. 



324 CASTLE FRASER. 

or are sorry that a previous engagement pre- 
vents them, without imminent danger of their 
being afterwards carefully embalmed on a folio 
sheet of paper, beside specimens of scribbling 
from Grace Darling, Joseph Hume, Dr. Chalmers, 
Lady Blessington, Lockhart, Wilson, Captain 
Hall, Hannah More, Wilberforce, Mrs. Couch, 
and the whole Bench of Bishops ! 

I never could have guessed half th^ annoy- 
ance endured in society by the race of lions, 
unless I had happened often to see Sir Walter 
Scott suffering under it, who would frequently 
have been thankful to put on a domino, or 
to adopt invisibility, as every body pricked for- 
ward their ears if he merely asked what o'' clock 
it was, and ceased to breathe when he made a 
remark on the weather. 

After leaving Aberdeen, we proceeded, in our 
usual touch-and-go style of travelling, through 
the charming valley of Strathdon, to inspect a 
large assortment of castles, new, old, and middle- 
aged, which embellish the rivers Dee and Don, 
two rival streams, the comparative merits of 
which are keenly disputed by lovers of the pic- 
turesque ; and as I actually do not claim to be 



CASTLE FRASER. 325 

a perfectly infallible judge on these subjects, 
you shall have the impartial verdict of a poet, 
who thinks he has settled the point by an elegant 
couplet : 

" One foot of Don's worth two of Dee, 

" Except it be for fisli and tree." 

Among the best remaining specimens of 
old Scottish fortresses, we admired none more 
than CAiStle Fraser, which seems in perfect pre- 
servation, with a curious old French court be- 
hind, and possessing a noble round tower, nearly 
a hundred feet high, quite a model of ancient 
architecture, being surrounded by handsome 
balusti'ades, and defended by stone cannon. I 
had unluckily obtained false information re- 
specting this place, being assured that no access 
could possibly be obtained to see it, and an 
exaggerated representation was drawn, of its 
having been fortified inaccessibly against the 
intrusion of idle curiosity. I merely ventured, 
therefore, to station our carriage as a eorps de 

reserve at the gate, and with A for an 

advanced guard, stole upon tip-toe along the 
approach, concealed myself in an ambuscade 
behind a large plane tree, and from thence took 



326 CASTLE FRASER. 

a hasty survey of the premises. After having 
counted the windows, estimated the height of 
the towers, guessed the thickness of the walls, 
admired the curious gable-headed windows, 
wondered at the number of projecting little 
turrets, . and ascertained for certain, that the 
castle is a very great deal larger at the top 
than at the foundation, my curiosity having 
been rather increased than satiated, I took 
courage, and asked a servant boy in livery, who 
was passing towards the castle, whether we 
could possibly see the house, but he appeared 
panic-struck at the sight of strangers, stared as 
if we had been apparitions, and suddenly ab- 
sconded at full speed ! A was amused 

beyond measure, but this catastrophe complete- 
ly intimidated me, and I slowly retreated in 
good order, almost expecting the cannons to 
fire upon us. 

The country round this neighbourhood exhi- 
bits infallible symptoms of resident proprie- 
tors, the fields being all thoroughly drained, 
hedged, planted, cultivated, and presenting a 
general aspect of prosperity. Our drive was 
delicious, till we reached the splendid modern, 



CASTLE FRASER. 327 

spic-and-span-new castle recently built by Mr. 
Gordon of Cluny. It is still quite damp from 
the press, and will not be habitable for some 
months. The plan is designed by a young un- 
professional artist, who, wonderful to relate, 
omitted neither door, window, nor stair-case, 
and has been altogether so successful, that he 
deserves three rounds of applause. The granite 
is so very hard, that it would almost need to be 
cut with a diamond, but after years of laborious 
chiselling, a magnificent front of exquisite masonry 
has been completed, though, I daresay, to calcu- 
late the expense might puzzle Cocker himself. 

I must now give you a " graphic sketch," 
painted expressly for the occasion, of this ex- 
tensive building. The style is veiy peculiar, 
and must belong, 1 should guess, to no parti- 
cular order, and to the class specio-cissima. A 
high circular tower at one end, four stories 
high, is surmounted by a square ditto three 
stories higher, which seems to have grown out 
of the other, and which is curiously flanked at 
the summit by a pointed turret, stuck on appa- 
rently by accident. This lofty pile is a grand 
extravaganza in stone, reaching nearer the 



328 MONYMUSK. 

moon than any modern tower I know, while the 
main body of this edifice abounds in cheerful, 
airy, well-proportioned rooms. The castle wants 
nothing now but good fires, furniture, and in- 
habitants. 

The park displays abundance of grass, and is 
embellished with middle-aged trees, but has not 
a drop of water to show in the whole landscape, 
— not so much as a canal or a horse pond. Some 
of the ground lies so flat, as almost to defy 
draining, and after great expense incurred to 
improve the soil, Johnston the drainer was 
brought to inspect it, and questioned whether 
the ground did not now look " rather parkish ?" 
to which he dryly answered, " No ! it is rather 
lakish." 

Next in this world of ancient feudal castles, 
we passed the snug, tidy, quaint-looking old place 
of Monymusk, better situated than most of the 
others, near the Don. Not far off^, we admired 
the solemnly pleasing shades of a fine forest, 
rather whimsically named Paradise. The pro- 
prietor of this little fortress unfortunately took 
the key in his pocket, when he went to the Con- 
tinent, so on our inquiring whether it might be 



MONYMUSK. 329 

seen, a maid, who was sitting with closed doors, 
showed her profile through a small crevice, and 
gave us warning to quit. You see, therefore, 
the proverb is not always true, " Chateau qui 
parle, et/emme qui ecotite, va se rendre V 

The little village of Monymusk is quite a 
model of neatness, built in the form of a large 
square, with a grass common in the middle, en- 
closed by a fence of rough stakes, and by a luxu- 
riant inner hedge of thorn. Here many of the 
villagers were strolling about with a look of 
cheerful indolent leisure, as if they had worked 
enough for the day, and felt entitled now to be 
happy. Nearly all the common people in Scot- 
land walk with their hands in their pockets, — 
l}etter certainly than in any other person's — but 
it gives them an anxious forlorn appearance, as 
if in chase of their last shilling. 

The Priory here has been handsome, and still 
preserves some remains of grandeur, though six 
hundred years old. The ancient Saxon arches at 
each end are entire, and look as if they might 
last six hundred years more ; or perhaps as long 
as the earth continues spinning on her axle. 

The small inn-parlour at Monymusk is deco- 



330 CASTLE FORBES. 

rated with a little fancy print which, though the 
subject be melancholy, might make the gravest 
person smile. It represents Prince Leopold and 
Britannia mourning at the tomb of Princess 
Charlotte — he, appropriately costumed in a flow- 
ing black tragedy-cloak, the very image of a 
second-rate actor, and she, weeping in a rose- 
coloured dress, yellow body, and pink feathers, 
over an urn, very like the glass globe in an apo- 
thecary's shop, or as if she were in the last ago- 
nies of sea-sickness. The very lion at her feet 
seems wiping his eyes with his paw, looking more 
like a lion in distress than anything I ever wit- 
nessed before. 

We passed Pitfichy, a ruin which belonged 
to the family of the well known General Hurry, 
of the Parliamentary army, and Tillyfour, which 
was, I hope, in better repair when Queen Mary 
inhabited it for one night only, and by particu- 
lar desire. Our carriage wheels then turned 
themselves towards Castle Forbes, belonging to 
the premier Baron of Scotland. This is a finely 
situated modern house, exhibiting, of course, a 
majestic round tower, which is quite the newest 
fashion in building. The opposite tower is square. 



KILDRUMMY CASTLE. 331 

Formal and regular plans are now quite out, and 
everything in the free-and-easy style of archi- 
tecture, with as few of the windows, doors, or 
turrets to match as possible. We admired this 
place exceedingly, and the Castle has a beautiful 
effect in the distance, peeping out through a 
mass of wood, about half-way up the bank, as if 
it had stopped in ascending, to take a look of 
the country, and remained stationary to admire 
it for ever. No wonder ! The Don flows grace- 
fully through a gay panorama of plantations, 
castles, farms, and distant hills, a correct inven- 
tory of which would fill the rest of my paper. 

You must one day visit the seven tall towers 
of Kildrummy Castle, formerly considered im- 
pregnable, but which a sparrow now may take 
possession of. They were built by St. Gilbert, 
in the twelfth century, and all enterprising tour- 
ists should positively make a digression off" the 
road, to ascend the dark ghosty-looking stairs, 
and to fight many battles over again on the 
spot which once steeped those walls in the blood 
of heroes. Every stone has had its adventures ; 
but Kildrummy Castle was finally betrayed to 
the English army by a blacksmith, bribed to this 



332 



KILDEUMMY CASTLE. 



treachery with the promise of as much gold as 
he could carry. In pursuance of his engage- 
ment, he threw a red hot bar into the hayloft, 
which set the Castle on fire, and during the con- 
sequent confusion, it was taken, but the merce- 
nary traitor suffered a frightful punishment from 
his own recent allies, who, detesting his crime, 
kept their promise in a literal sense, by pouring 
melted gold down his throat ! Our old Scotch 
proverb truly says, " better a little fire that 
w'arms, than mickle that burns," 

I am now about to adopt a grand historical 
tone, and to tell you a little more, for even if you 
know my tale already, yet, like Sir Christopher 
Hutton in the Critic, you will be the better of 
hearing it all over again. 

Kildruraray Castle, formerly the chief seat of 
the powerful Earls of Mar, always distinguished 
itself greatly in Scottish history. When Robert 
Bruce first asserted his claims to the crown, and 
met with reverses, he lodged his Queen and 
daughter here, under charge of his brother Sir 
Niel. Being threatened with a siege, the ladies 
fled to a sanctuary, where they were betrayed by 
the Earl of Ross ; and after a brave defence for 



KILDRUMMY CASTLE. 333 

some time, they were only captured through the 
treachery of Osburn, an EngHshman, who blew 
up the powder magazine. Thus the ladies had 
only saved themselves from Scylla, and plunged 
into Charybdis, or, to use a vulgar phrase, they 
were " out of the frying-pan into the fire." By 
the way, Hume or Alison would blot such an 
expression out of their pages, and 1 wish at pre- 
sent to be quite upon their model, so try to for- 
get it. 

Kildrummy Castle was again beleaguered in 
1335, when the misfortunes of David Bruce had 
left this kingdom, during' three years, in the 
liands of Edward Baliol and his partizans. It 
held out bravely against the Earl of Athol, who 
being surprised by a very inferior force, and kill- 
ed, in the forest of Kilblain, the tide of fortune 
turned, and swept away the whole English party 
from the entire kingdom of Scotland, which now, 
as on all occasions, proved unconquerable. 

The third siege in 1404 is quite romantic, 
when it was assailed by a band of robbers, com- 
manded by Alexander Stewart, natural son of 
that notorious character, infamous in our Scot- 
tish annals, " The Wolf of Badenoch,'' whose 



334 KILDRUMMY CASTLE. 

real title was Earl of Buclian, being third son of 
King Robert the Second. Though he burned 
and robbed Elgin Cathedral, ill treated his wife, 
a Countess in her own right, and distinguished 
himself by every species of atrocity, yet on his 
tomb-stone in Dunkeld Cathedral, we find him 
complaisantly stated to be " of good memory !" 
How different will be the record kept on earth, 
from that which shall be heard at an eternal tri- 
bunal ! 

The adventurous young freebooter and his gang 
attacked Kildrummy Castle when it was occupied 
by the hereditary Countess of Mar in her own 
right, then a widow. He stormed it, gained 
possession, made a mockery of delivering up the 
keys and papers into her own hand at the gate, 
and finally obliged her to declare that she 
voluntarily took him as her husband, for better 
or worse, — indeed he could hardly be worse. 
The successful adventurer now styled himself 
Earl of Mar, and became, as times go, quite a 
respectable man ! He was ambassador " ex- 
traordinary !"" to England, fought in a tourna- 
ment with the Earl of Kent, commanded a 
Scottish array against the Lord of the Isles at 



CRAIGIEVAR CASTLE. 335 

Harlow, was generalissimo to the Duke of Bur- 
gundy in support of the Bishop of Liege, and 
retaining the Earldom, though his wife died 
without children, he finally married Lady Duffyl 
an heiress in Brabant. 

We caught, in passing, a distant glimpse of 
Craigievar, a singular old Oastle, the lower-half 
being a plain square tower entirely without or- 
nament, and so narrow, you might suppose it 
had worn a strait-waistcoat, but above it juts 
out on all sides, in a strange, any-how-fashion, 
with little gable-ends, little turrets, and little 
windows, as if a whole village had scrambled 
up and clustered on the roof. Supreme above 
all, waved a large showy banner, which the post- 
lioy with an approving nod, pointed out, inform- 
ing me it was " A Reform flag, and had never 
been taken down since the passing of the bill !" 
The ancestor of this family obtained his baronet- 
age from King Charles, against whom he soon 
afterwards took arms. In an old ballad of those 
times, describing the death of " Bonny John 
Seton, a baron bold,'' in memory of whom the 
family still bear on their shield a heart dropping 



33( 



lAIGIEVAR CASTLfi. 



blood, we find these lines, showing what mixed 
motives often dictate extreme measures : 

" Oh, spoil him, spoil him ! cried Craigievar, 
Him spoiled let me see ; • 
For on my word, said Craigievar, 
He bore no good will to me." 

If you have a laudable curiosity to see Mac- 
beth's cairn, he was decidedly killed near this, 
at Lumphanan, three miles beyond Kincardine 
O'Neil, and though most of the monumental 
pile was pilfered formerly to build cow-sheds 
and pig styes, yet enough still remains to iden- 
tify the spot. 

As Shakespeare says, " the property of rain 
is to wet ;"" so, as we were treated in the evening 
to a mixture of showers and wind, with a few 
scruples of Scotch mist, we first attempted a 
stoppage at the Bridge of Alford, but finding 
only a curtainless, carpetless, dingy apartment, 
pre-occupied by sportsmen for fishing, we merely 
snatched a chop, looked for the field where the 
battle of Alford was fought, and where Lord 
Huntly's eldest son was killed, and then pro- 
ceeded, by the beautiful banks of the Don, to 



CRAIGIEVAR. 337 

this little perfection of a Highland farm-inn at 
Kincardine O'Neil, kept by a cordial, hearty, 
old landlady, who would have served me up 
three courses at tea, if I had not barricadoed 
the table against anything more. After bring- 
ing up six kinds of tea-bread, eggs, and marma- 
lade, she made a desperate attempt to force a 
dish of chops or chickens upon us, but I would 
not hear of so much as a biscuit being added to 
the liberal entertainment, having adopted the 
opinion of an old gentleman, who remarked, that 
supper is " an insult to dinner, and an injury to 
breakfast." 

The landlady presented me next morning with 
a beautiful bouquet, containing all the best 
flowers in her garden, and though none were 
exotics, the good old native wall-flowers and 
thyme, with their fragrant perfume, come back 
like the familiar friends of by-gone days, and 
revive many " thoughts too deep for tears." 
Who does not remember the period when one 
little enclosure, frilled round with box- wood and 
flaunting with sun-flowers and daffodils, gave 
him more real joy than the gardens at Kew could 
<\o now if he had them ; and as the simpler we 



338 CRAIGIEVAR. 

can keep our tastes, the more easy they are of 
indulgence, I would not exchange my partiality 
to honeysuckles, violets, and roses, for all the 
scentless rarities that ever adorned a green- 
house, directing their attractions to the eye and 
not to the heart. 

It was in honour of our good old landlady, 
Mrs. Gordon, that these very beautiful lines 
were penned, containing an eloquent and deserv- 
ed panegyric, written with so much taste and 
feeling, that we have scarcely yet decided whe- 
ther the style resembles most that of Moore or 
Mrs. Hemans. 

Of all the hostleries so fair, 
Built for the traveller's dwelling, 
On Dee-side, far beyond connpare, 
Kincardine is excelling. 



339 



LOCH-NA-GAR. 



Years have roll'd on, Loch-na-gar, since I left you ! 

Years must elapse ere I tread you again, 
Nature of verdure and flow'rs has bereft you. 

Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain. 

England ! thy beauties are tame and domestic. 
To one who has rov'd on the mountains afar ! 

Oh ! for the crags that are wild and majestic, 
The steep frowning glories of dark Loch-na-gar. 

Byron. 



My dear Cousin, — -Here we are, in the scene 
of Lord Byron's early days, where, before 
" splendour had rais'd, but embittered his lot," 
he joyously ran over the lofty hills, without his 
hat, and where, again to use his own expression, 
he " clasp'd the mountain in his mind's em- 
brace," a stretch of imagination certainly ! Near 
the snow-covered summit of Morven, he imbibed 



340 LOCH-NA-GAR. 

a taste for those cloud-capped mountains, thun- 
dering torrents, and pathless forests, which owe 
their subsequent celebrity to his pen, and you 
could not wonder here that Byron became a 
poet, but would be apt rather to wonder that 
every one is not. 

We drove to-day through moors purple with 
heather, and sprinkled with birch, the pyramids 
of hills growing bolder as we advanced, and the 
beautiful Dee dancing beside us most of the time, 
while a magnificent confusion of mountains 
hemmed us in on every side, rock above rock, 
and one precipice looking over the head of ano- 
ther, in endless succession, some as bare as a 
turnpike road, and others crowded with trees 
to their highest pinnacles. Here we gained a 
momentary glimpse of Aboyne Castle, covered 
with a sheet of white-wash, a fine feudal- looking 
edifice, embosomed in fir trees, and rather shy 
of showing itself. 

The inn at Ballater is charmingly situated at 
one end of a bridge, with the swiftly flowing 
river rushing along at the extremity of a neat 
little flower garden. This was quite a place to 
spend the summer at, instead of merely chang- 



LOCH-NA-GAR. 341 

ing horses as we did. Here the sole, engrossing 
business of everybody's life seemed to be trout- 
fishing, and I pity every gentleman not fond of 
that fascinating sport, which becomes often an in- 
exhaustible resource to the half-pay woi'ld, many 
of whom occupy their whole mornings in angling, 
and their evenings in dressing hooks. I like to 
see a hat like some we passed to-day, stuck 
over, inside and out, with flies, as if a bee-hive 
had swarmed on it. Many ladies in the High- 
lands wield the rod, though rather perhaps out 
of their element on such an occasion. I was 
amused to hear of a chieftain, accustomed 
only to angling, who arrived in a hunting coun- 
try, where a kind neighbour, finding he had 
never before seen this sort of sport, gave him 
a mount on a spirited steed, which, of course, 
ran off with him, but as he flew past his friend 
at full career, vainly trying to hold in the reins, 
he was heard to exclaim, with a true Highland 
drawl, " I like fishing much better !" 

I receive daily lessons against indulging an 
excessive partiality to open carriages, but it 
seems quite incurable. We discovered a most 
enticing little britchska to be hired at Ballater, 



342 LOCH-NA-GAR. 

and, congratulating myself on such a piece of 
good fortune, I took possession, and proceeded 
the first three miles of our beautiful journey in 
the most unalloyed state of enjoyment, but 
gradually the mist hung in festoons almost 
down to the road, and at last came such a burst 
of rain that travellers must have been drenched 
before they could raise an umbrella. In this 
bold, romantic scene, it became most tantalizing 
not to know a cloud from a hill, but they must, 
indeed, at all times be near neighbours on very 
intimate terms. 

Besides the grey precipices, hoarse waterfalls, 
towering hills, and inconceivable profusion of 
birch and fir trees, this noble scene displays 
another beauty which you would scarcely anti- 
cipate, being quite the kingdom of wild roses. 
We saw thousands by the road side, — a perfect 
army of red and white roses drawn up in battle 
array, and scattered all around in dazzling 
abundance. You perhaps fancy, I mean mere 
hedges, but there were wild uncultivated fields 
of them, giving so flushed and full-dressed an 
aspect to the landscape, that the road seemed 
ornamented for a gala, and several branches 



LOCH-NA-GAR. 343 

hail straggled so far across our path that I could 
almost have plucked them as we drove along. 
If you wish to know how a dress of green velvet 
and roses would look, nature certainly wears 
one here. As Bishop Home remarked of a Chris- 
tian's afflictions, " every thorn is accompanied by 
a flower !" Sometimes while contrasting the sim- 
ple delight of living in a scene like this with the 
artificial enjoyments of a town career, I have 
thought the difference might be aptly illustrated 
by comparing the feelings of a wearied, haggard, 
and worn-out votary of dissipation, with faded 
looks and exhausted spirits, hurrying home from 
a ball-room at the dawn of day, and meeting 
the joyous school-boys and market girls, fresh 
from their country homes, with buoyant spirits 
and unimpaired health, untarnished by the heat, 
glare, and dust which have accompanied unna- 
tural excitement. It is astonishing how many 
prefer gas light to sunshine itself, which, like 
the light of religion, cheers every moment of 
joy, interfering with no pleasure that deserves 
the name, and least of all with our interest and 
delight in contemplating the works of creation 
and providence. 



344 ABERGELDIE CASTLE. 

Abergeldie Castle, which we passed, is a tall 
white house, like a spectre among the dark 
mountains, quite romantically beautiful in situa- 
tion, and properly furnished with bartizans and 
turrets complete. Burns wrote a song on the 
" birks of Aberfeldie," but the great original 
birches were those of this place, which we now 
admired, and the more ancient ballad begins 
with an invitation which I would recommend 
every one to accept who admires a fascinating 
country, — 

Bonny lassie, will ye go 
To the birks o' Abergeldie ? 

The river Dee flows, broad, deep, and silent, 
beneath the walls of this old building, and the 
inhabitants being obliged to make a circuit of 
some miles for a bridge, have suspended a cra- 
dle here, from tree to tree, across the rapid 
stream, in which enterprising travellers may 
venture a flight on a slack rope in the same way 
as at Noss Head. Here the foundation is more 
secure than that of Shetland, where, in default 
of trees, large poles are merely stuck in the 
ground, but, nevertheless, I was truly glad not 



ABERGELDIE CASTLE. 345 

to bo going in that direction, because, after en- 
gaging to use whatever conveyances the country 
afforded, I should have been bound in honour 
to suspend myself here. The last accident 
which occurred on the swing-bridge was when 
a gamekeeper and dogs were emptied into the 
water, and had to swim for their lives ; but a 
more tragical catastrophe took place several 
years ago. An excise officer having fallen in, 
crowds assembled, eager to rescue a fellow- crea- 
ture in distress, but when the sufferer was un- 
luckily i-ecognized, they left him to his fate, ex- 
claiming, " It's only the guager !" If a High- 
land jury had been summoned to the inquest, 
they would have been apt to return a verdict 
like that given lately on the trial of a man for 
violently beating his wife. When the jury re- 
entered, after long deliberation, and the judge 
solemnly asked for their decision, it was unani- 
mously delivered in these words, " Sarved her 
right !" 

A bride and bridegroom once, when attempt- 
ing to cross by this fantastic contrivance, on the 
day of their marriage, were precipitated into the 
rolling current, and perished. Such melancholy 



346 BALMORRAL. 

and unexpected catastrophes bring to my 
mind sometimes the homely remark of a rural 
preacher, " Death is like a cow in a daisy-field, 
cropping here, and there, and everywhere, by 
turns !" 

We next observed Balmorral, a beautiful 
place of Lord Fife's, who seems fortunate in a 
tenant, as we were told that it has been long 
occupied for shooting quarters by a sportsman, 
who adds a new wing or tower to the house 
almost every year, and gathers a perfect battu 
of excellent shots round the neighbourhood. If 
it be any consolation to die by noble hands, the 
whole House of Lords seemed in full progress 
here for the ensuing campaign, when the coun- 
try will be fragrant with gunpowder, and re- 
sounding with shots. We saw one noble red- 
deer standing by the road side, and staring at 
us while we passed, as if he meant to " take down 
our number." He seemed to have no idea of 
making way for intruders in his native forests, 
and I am told these animals scarcely notice a 
carriage at any time, therefore the best way to 
shoot them would be to go out in one. 

The next place on our muster-roll of houses 



INVERCAULD. 347 

was Invercauld, which has for many centuries 
belonged to the ancestors of Mrs. Farquharson, 
the present chieftainess of that clan. Here 
magnificent forests clamber up the mountain 
sides, and stately old trees enrich the valley, 
which, surrounded by a ring of lofty pinnacles, 
can be compared to nothing but Sinbad's valley 
of diamonds, to which birds alone could find 
access. You would be quite perplexed to im- 
agine how a carriage ever wound its way into 
this beautiful park, or is ever to get out again. 
Loch-na-gar rushes up with a fine sweep towards 
the sky, where it indents the very firmament 
above. The Lion's face is a noble craggy pre- 
cipice, and another mountain opposite the house 
of Invercauld, displays flowers at the base and 
snow on the summit. 

You can dream of nothing comparable to the 
effect by moonlight on Ben-y-bourd and Loch- 
na-gar, looking blacker than night, as if carved 
in ebony or jet, varied by solemn forests of fir, 
and the dark foaming current of the Dee. It 
was in this romantic district that a native, 
brought from the featureless flats of Buchan, 
was asked what he thought of the scenery, 



348 INVERCAULD. 

when he remarked in a tone of diverting per- 
plexity. " Oh ! it's very fine scainery, — but its 
a' scainery together ! nothing but scainery ! — 
feint a flea but scainery ! !" 

We enjoyed a charming drive next morning, 
with Miss Farquharson, through several miles 
of natural forest, in which everything appeared 
wild and uncultivated, as if not a human being 
had ever interfered with the course of nature. 
Aged fir trees bristled against the sky, their 
furrowed gray stems looking as old as the 
mountains they covered, while clustered together 
for miles, their strange fantastic arms were 
thrown out in every curious contortion that can 
be imagined, beneath which, the whole ground 
was embroidered with a wild profusion of heather, 
cranberries, thyme, roses, myrtle, fox-glove, and 
the old original blue bells of Scotland. Who 
could attempt to describe such a scene ! it is 
impossible t the gigantic outline, and the minute 
finishing, — the hills of a thousand years, and 
the blossoms of an hour ! all that is majestic, 
and all that is lovely in nature, glowing be- 
neath a flood of sunshine, and filling the heart 
with enraptured gratitude towards that Great 



INVERCAULD, . 349 

Being, who, in embellishing our world with 
beauty, has given us one earthly pleasure, 
in which there is no sinful excess, no dis- 
appointment, and almost a foretaste of that 
felicity which we look for in a still brighter and 
better world. 

The road, gently undulating up and down 
the mountain side, might have been supposed 
merely a track formed by accident, but in other 
places it whirled round the hills like a cork- 
screw. We drove in a light open carriage, 
drawn by spirited young horses, which, in any 
other circumstances, would have engrossed my 
most anxious attention, but such was the ele- 
vating effect of this sublime scene, that I actually 
forgot to be frightened ! The proud Lord 
Abercorn used to drive his thorough-bred 
horses over hill and dale, with no other reins 
than blue ribbons, the trappings he delighted in 
for himself, but having tried the experiment 
once too often, they ran off, when he leaped out 
and broke both his legs. 

These roads through the tangled forests 
were made by a regiment formerly quartered 
in the old Castle of Braemar, a square tower 



350 INVERCAULD. 

ornamenting the paxk of Invercauld, which once 
belonged to the Earls of Mar. Colonel Far- 
quharson, seeing those soldiers falling into idle 
habits, like a second Marshal Wade, employed 
them in cutting and carving their way over the 
mountains, to so great an extent, that it would 
occupy many days now, to drive over all the 
highways and byeways they formed. One very 
rare species of tree was pointed out during 
our drive, " The gallows tree," on which the 
chief of the clan Farquharson, without thinking 
it necessary to consult any jury, exercised the 
privilege of suspending his retainers when dis- 
obedient. We abandoned the carriage at one 
impossible ascent, and scrambled up to admire 
the stream of the Garrawalt, falling in a loud, 
roaring cascade, which foamed and timibled 
impetuously onwards. It was surmounted by 
a singularly elegant rustic bridge of rough 
stakes, so very light and insecure looking, 
that some visitors race across on tiptoe, ex- 
pecting it to snap in two. The distant effect is 
charming. 

In a tasteful and elegant moss-house, where 
we sat down to relieve our feelings by a can- 



MAR LODGE. 351 

nonade of exclamations, while admiring the tor- 
mented river tumbling passionately about on its 
rocky bed, and then passing away, like the 
course of time, our attention was called off by 
observing that the whole roof and sides of this 
retreat had been grotesquely disfigured by a 
party of strangers from Aberdeen, who arrived 
there in the morning, and who had most ungra- 
ciously occupied their time in spoiling this 
romantic seat, by strongly fastening up with 
wires tickets exhibiting their own insignificant 
names, which had probably never appeared else- 
where, except on a shop-board. 

To-day I got my first glimpse of Mar Lodge. 
Its best friends cannot call the house a beauty, 
being rather of the cotton-mill school, but as 
Cinderella's sisters observed of their ugly 
dresses, " to make up for that," all around is 
magnificent. The situation is not only superb 
for natural beauty, but also for affording every 
variety of sport. The newspapers resound each 
successive season with a list of killed and 
wounded at Mar Lodge. Among grouse, red 
deer, trout, salmon, and every living creature 
that has the misfortune to be called game, or 



352 LYNN OF DEE. 

that it is any pleasure to kill, I suppose more 
deaths take place here annually, than in any 
other corner of the known world. Even the 
trees at Mar Lodge are slaughtered on a great 
scale ! The better half of this venerable forest, 
once the ornament of Scotland, now lies pros- 
trate in the dust. The saw-mill has done its 
work, and a few hundreds only remain to tell of 
the thousands that are no more. 

As a colony of trouts in the Bruar once 
employed Burns to write a poetical complaint 
of wanting shade, the fish in the Dee should 
engage Campbell or Wilson, the only living 
poets of Scotland now, to assist them with a 
few verses. It is curious to observe how very 
much poetry has gone out ; and we shall soon 
have nothing left but the embers, unless a little 
fresh fuel be put to the imaginations of the 
rising generation. 

At the celebrated Lynn of Dee, this caprici- 
ous, frolicsome stream is imprisoned within a 
contracted chasm of rock, and rushes out like 
splintered lightning, dashing with an impe- 
tuous violence, the thundering sound of which 
can be heard nearly a mile off. This need 



LYNN OF DEE. 353 

scarcely be wondered at, when we see a broad 
river decanted through a narrow neck of solid 
stone, which so nearly meets over the top, that 
many fool-hardy people have leaped across. 
When driving towards the Lynn, I had observed, 
for about two miles, a ragged boy racing at full 
speed after the carriage ; and at this moment 
he hastily descended towards the gorge, with an 
evident intention to exhibit before us, by taking 
this desperate leap. We most peremptorily 
summoned the little urchin back, at which he 
seemed considerably astonished, having been 
accustomed to receive a premium, rather than a 
reprimand, from tourists, for risking life and 
limb, to afford them diversion, but I would have 
given him double price to be stationary. 

The first chief of the clan Farquharson was 
drowned here ; and no one seeing the frightful 
pool, supposed by the country people to be 
bottomless, could fancy that a bone of his body 
remained unbroken. A poor man last month, 
who succeeded in springing over, missed his aim 
in attempting to return, and' fell back into the 
foaming caldron ! Now, what do you think 



354 LYNN OF DEE. 

was the consequence 1 " Drowned of course !" 
No ! by a sort of miracle, he was washed on to 
a rock perfectly unhurt, and lives to tell the tale 
himself. 

Last, not least, Lord Byron very nearly died 
here in a manner worthy of his poetical taste. 
Some heather having tripped up his lame foot, 
he rolled helplessly down towards the precipice, 
but on the very brink of destruction, he was 
preserved by an attendant, who with difficulty 
saved his life — that life, a scene of so much fiery 
passion and intense agony, that he could scarcely 
afterwards rejoice at its having been prolonged. 
The world's loud plaudits could not drown the 
still small voice of an inward monitor, the wit- 
ness for God in every mortal mind, reminding us 
that nothing on this earth can suffice for happi- 
ness ; and the more intellect or sensibility frail 
man may be gifted with, the more empty, vain, 
and disappointing to his never-dying spirit will 
appear the vanishing pleasures of time. That the 
solemn and unspeakable importance of Chris- 
tianity was at one period impressed on the mind 
of Lord Byron himself, may be hoped, from read- 



LYNN OF DEE. 355 

ing the well-known lines inscribed on his own 
Bible: 

Within this awful volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries. 
Happiest they of human race, 
To whom their God has given grace, 
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
To lift the latch, to force the way ; 
And better had they ne'er been bom, 
Than read to doubt — or read to scorn. 



356 



BLAIRGOWRIE. 



Panting time toils after us in vain. 

JOHNSO>f. 

My dear Cousin. — Wherever travellers are 
going, if there be a particularly bad road, nar- 
row and hilly, without parapets, bridges, or inns, 
you may feel certain that for some insuperable 
reason, they ought to prefer it, and accordingly, 
though we were recommended for comfort to 
proceed^from Invercauld by the Blairgowrie road, 
I exceedingly wished to have gone up Glen Tilt, 
that we might see how dreary and wild the world 
would have been without inhabitants. There 
the long desolate ridges of Scarsochare 35000 
feet high, the hill of Ben-na-muich-duidh has a 
name all but unpronounceable, and the forest of 



BLAIRGOWRIE. 357 

Dalmore is noted as producing the finest natu- 
ral pine trees in Europe, both in respect to their 
size, and the quality of the timber. Some of 
these trees measure from eighty to ninety feet in 
height, without a lateral branch, their diameter 
at the base being four feet and a half, but in 
spite of all these attractions, and fifty more be- 
sides, we submitted to advice, and plodded on 
towards Blairgowrie. 

My miseries began with a ford across the Dee, 
which had been for several days before impass- 
able, but the post-boy from Castleton of Brae- 
mar protested we might venture through, so I 
closed my eyes to avoid being frightened, and 
could not but remember at that moment, the not 
very consoling advice of a servant once in simi- 
lar circumstances, to his master, " If it comes 
to the worst. Sir ! hold down your head, and 
drown as fast as possible V 

There was once upon a time a public-spirited 
Lord Breadalbane, who erected thirty-two stone 
)>ridges, and if any one ever proposes a monu- 
ment to his memory, my subscription, after this 
day's experience, shall be doubled. Bridges are 
certainly most convenient things, but those along 



358 CRAIGHALL. 

this road are so singularly narrow, that you 
might fancy the carriage wheels had been exact- 
ly measured, so as to graze the parapet on both 
sides. I must attend, however, to the grateful 
old proverb, " Let every one praise the bridge he 
goes over." 

The Spittal of Glen Shea, — or rather the Hos- 
pital, as it used to be called, was our first stage, 
and after having driven through a wild looking 
desert, we here found a green expanse of excel- 
lent pasture, with something that called itself an 
inn, where a covey of Irish sportsmen annually 
assemble for the shooting season, and occupy the 
best rooms. It is surprising that gentlemen do 
not oftener pitch a tent upon the moors, which 
would be attended with the most romantic de- 
gree of discomfort. A party came to Scotland 
some years ago in this Arab fashion, and they 
brought moreover, a long narrow carriage, which 
could be metamorphosed occasionally into a 
boat. Thus they lived, according to the beau- 
ideal of Lord Byron, " My tent on shore, my 
galley on the sea." 

Craighall showed itself for a few moments as 
we passed, a romantic old castle, which had once 



BLAIRGOWRIE. 359 

the honour of being besieged by an Earl of 
Athol, who had married a daughter of the Rat- 
tray family, and intended, by killing all the male 
representatives of that house, to bring in his wife 
as the heiress, but he had no more success than 
he deserved, as the gentlemen proved " too many 
for him.'' 

After pausing at the gay pretty town of Blair- 
gowrie, we skirted along a complete chain of small 
lakes — or lakelets — not very illustrious for 
beauty. In the loch of Clunie, almost rising out 
of the water, stands an old castle, scarcely de- 
serving a second glance, till you hear that it 
claims the honour to have been the birth-place 
of the Admirable Crichton, the wonder of his 
age, and of every subsequent age besides. I 
sometimes wish a scale could be invented for 
measuring the extent and depth of men's attain- 
ments — not as they seem to others, or are esti- 
mated by themselves, but according to the real 
weight of metal they carry. How grand and 
unexpected the sum total would appear in some 
cases, and how marvellously others, who fill up a 
large space in the public eye, would shrink to an 
atom ; but such a genius as the Admirable 



360 DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. 

Crichton, would then, perhaps, be found to out- 
weigh a whole college. 

We drove at length through the lofty bar- 
riers of the King's Pass, which forms a grand 
entrance to Dunkeld, and arrived to dinner at 
Grant's very beautifully situated inn, near one 
end of the bridge, where the broad, deep, majes- 
tic Tay floats beneath the windows, clear as the 
glass through which we were gazing at it. I 
cannot but wonder that any traveller can ever 
tear himself away from this enchanting neigh- 
bourhood in less than a month, he must find so 
much to enjoy in strolling through the Duke's 
magnificent grounds, where the thing perhaps 
most to be admired of all, is the liberality with 
which they are thrown open, so that any tourist 
may feel here, as if he had suddenly succeeded 
to a large estate of his own, and were come to 
enjoy it. 

The old Cathedral of Dunkeld, founded by 
Robert Bruce's protege Bishop Sinclair, five hun- 
dred years ago, stands within the grounds, and 
is considered quite an architectural gem, being a 
curious omnium gather'em of various styles, 
forming a beautiful whole, though sketchers and 



DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. 361 

engravers have made sad havoc of its graceful 
Saxon and Norman arches. Most of the build- 
ing is a mere shell, but we attended Divine ser- 
vice in the choir, which is yet in its premier Jeu- 
nesse, on Sunday, and observed a handsome 
marble tablet, raised by the congregation in tes- 
timony of heartfelt and unanimous regret for the 
death of their pious and beloved clergyman Mr. 
Robb, drowned on board the Forfarshire steam- 
vessel, some months ago. In reading their ex- 
pressions of deep lamentation, I could not but 
remember that this excellent man, when present- 
ed to the Church two years ago, encountered a 
universal veto, and the very doors were barrica- 
doed against him, by the identical persons now 
so entirely conciliated by his extraordinary zeal 
and ability. The patron has since presented this 
living to Mr. Mackenzie, who at once rendered 
himself acceptable to the whole parish, and it is 
confidently anticipated, that patronage will 
again be honoured in its protege. 

None of the parishioners attempted a veto on 
this occasion, with or without rendering a rea- 
son, and I hope it may be long before here or 
elsewhere, it shall become a sufficient cause for 



362 DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. 

rejecting a clergyman, to repeat those well- 
known lines, which used, at one time, to be 
reckoned rather ridiculous ; 

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell, 
The reason why I cannot tell; 
But I do not like thee, Dr. Fell. 

A very fine statue, representing the late Duke 
of Atholl, stands in the chancel of this cathedral, 
dressed in his robes of state, and extremely like, 
though merely copied from a small portrait of 
Landseer's, by an artist who never saw his 
Grace. Close beside it, we perceived a very 
handsome monument to the Marquis of Atholl, 
emblazoned with the quarterings of his many 
great connections, and few families ever had 
more to boast of, as they were once related 
to every crowned head in Europe, except the 
Grrand Signior. 

The climate here must be.tolerably healthy, as 
there used to be at Dunkeld " an eighty-four 
club," no member being eligible till he attained 
that age. The late Duke used to say, that when 
young he made walks, and when old he made 
rides over the hills of Dunkeld, and both have now 



DUNKELD. 3G3 

been most effectually done, as the greatest pedes- 
trian might fatigue himself here, in perambulat- 
ing over the eighty miles of gravel walks and 
drives ! It must require a Bank of England reve- 
nue to keep the place in such admirable order ! 
I scarcely knew how to stop my peregrinations, 
for every turn of the way disclosed some new and 
incomparable beauty in the landscape. My feel- 
ing was like yours when interested in some very 
engrossing novel, every page rendering it more 
impossible to leave off. Mile after mile leads you 
on to more fascinating scenes, and every step dis- 
covers something not anticipated before. In one 
day the wearied guide led us, at a sort of race- 
horse pace, to Ossian^s Hall, and we climbed suc- 
cessively to the summit of Craig Vinian and 
Craigybarns, yet I felt as if we had done nothing ! 
Like Lord Chatham, we " trampled on impossi- 
bilities,"" and after walking sixteen miles up and 
down hill, I could have begun it all over again 
with pleasure, if the daylight only had been 
prolonged. 

The grounds of Dunkeld are supposed to 
exhibit nearly the most beautiful specimen of 
landscape gardening in Europe, being as well 



364 DUNKELD. 

wooded and highly dressed as any in England, 
with the advantage of a broad rapid torrent 
like the Tay glittering among the forests, and 
the towering rocks and mountains adding gran- 
deur and dignity to their singular beauty. A 
curious contrast may be remarked between the 
wild untameable magnificence of His Grace''s 
more Highland residence at Blair, and the rich 
verdant fertility of Dunkeld. No expense was 
spared to embellish both ; and as long as we 
have national vanity or national taste, all Scot- 
land must gratefully remember, that those 
scenes were adorned, not for himself alone, but 
for the use and enjoyment of all who possessed 
eyes to admire them. Many a delightful hour 
has been spent in the groves and gardens of 
Dunkeld, by strangers of all classes, and of all 
nations, welcomed as if they had been the 
Duke''s own relatives ; and it is, indeed, a privi- 
lege to ramble at large among the secluded 
walks, the gigantic trees, the flowers, the ar- 
bours, the river's banks, and though last, not 
least, the hills covered to their summits with 
larch. That was well known to be the Duke's 
favourite tree, of which he planted twenty thou- 



DUNKELD. 365 

sand acres ; and a Perthshire gentleman once 
remarked that though the county could not 
boast of an Arch-Duke, they had at any rate a 
Larch-Duke. When Wilkes came to this 
neighbourhood he protested that " the greatest 
vagary of Shakespeare's fancy was, to imagine 
a wood on Birnham Hill, where there never was 
a shrub." Certainly when the trees marched 
to Dunsinane they were very long of returning, 
as that mountain used to stand conspicuously 
bare among its wooded neighbours, like a great 
hay-stack in a garden, but the taste of the late 
Sir John Stewart of Murthly has enriched the 
scene by covering it with thriving plantations. 

Last time we were here, A had the 

amusement of lionizing the present Duke of 
Orleans all over these grounds, after which we 
dined in his company with the Duke of Atholl, 
who made a speech to his royal guest, saying 
he had formerly raised five hundred men to make 
war on foreign enemies, but he was now em- 
ploying an equal number in preparing a residence, 
where, if he did not live to practise hospitality 
himself, he trusted it would be done by those 
who came after him. He finished by proposing 



366 DUNKELD. 

the health and prosperity of Charles the Tenth, 
who had visited him at Blair during banishment 
from France, when the last words he said to the 
royal prince at taking leave were, " The kindest 
wish I can offer your Highness is, that I may 
never see you here again." 

The employment afforded to his tenantry by 
the Duke of AthoU, became a source of so much 
opulence and comfort to all around him, that his 
death was felt as a family misfortune in every 
cottage on his wide domains. Five hundred 
men were employed till the hour of his decease, 
in building that palace of almost royal splendour, 
which will probably never now be finished. When 
the news arrived of his Grace's demise, a mourn- 
ful dispersion of the work people instantly took 
place, and from that hour not a stroke has been 
heard among the deserted walls. A more strange 
and melancholy spectacle than it now presents, 
you can scarcely imagine. It is not a ruin ! it 
is not a house ! all seems fresh, new, and magni- 
ficent, yet in the surrounding desolation'you feel 
conscious that some great calamity has occurred, 
and speak almost in whispers, while pointing to 
the splendid arches, windows, and doors, some of 



DUNKELD. 367 

which have been temporarily closed in for pro- 
tection, — the half- chiselled stones, the bare red 
bricks, and the workmen's sheds surrounded by 
long grass and weeds, which grow all untrodden 
in the deep solitude and silence of this death-like 
scene. 

The Duke, during his life, caused a small glass 
pavilion, like a lantern, to be erected near the 
new palace, in which he sat for hours every day, 
watching the growth of this noble pile ; and ha- 
ving taken an English stranger once there, he 
laughed at his guest's long reach of imagination, 
who exclaimed, on beholding what looked like the 
foundations of a city, " This will be a noble ruin 
hereafter!"" Little did his Grace or the admiring 
visitor then foresee how nearly that hour was at 
hand, when the rain and the wind would beat 
unheeded through these roofless untenanted 
apartments ! A few short months would have 
completed this promising young palace, now so 
prematurely cut off. Two floors are nearly 
finished, as well as a gallery ninety-six feet long, 
besides an elegant private chapel, a spacious 
staircase, and several noble gothic windows, 



368 DUNKELD. 

which were to have been emblazoned with all the 
family shields and quarterings, carved in stone. 
We were shown a miniature model, which cost 
L.500, of the whole edifice. Will any future 
Aladdin arise to accomplish the whole of this 
superb plan ? If so, the power of stone and lime 
could no further go ! We traced real genius in 
the bold variety, as well as in the graceful ar- 
rangement of the whole outline, and I must say, 
that the architect, Mr. Hopper, may go proudly 
down to posterity, carrying, as evidences of his 
taste, Penrhyn Castle in one hand, and Dunkeld 
Palace in the other ! What profession in the 
world can compare to that of an architect for 
leaving permanent memorials behind ! Sir Chris- 
topher Wren will need no monument as long as 
St. Paul's keeps its place ; a marble tablet could 
add little to the celebrity of luigo Jones ; and 
who can ever forget Sir William Adams, while 
the barracks on Edinburgh Castle continue to be 
frightful. 

It is a singular coincidence in this neighbour- 
hood, that the twin-houses of Murthly and 
Dunkeld, which were in progress at the same 



DUNKELD, 369 

time, have both lost their founders, and remain- 
ed ever since desolate and forlorn, though 
Murthly, with its towers crowned by glittering 
weather-cocks, and its temporary windows of 
painted wood, puts a much more cheerful face 
upon the matter than this extensive young ruin. 
We daily experience how wise and merciful an 
appointment it is, that no one can tell the year 
or the hour when his labours on earth shall for 
ever cease. All exertion would at once be para- 
lyzed in such a case, and it requires energy of 
mind certainly in those who cannot reckon on a 
day, to begin what must occupy years to com- 
plete. " Man proposes and God disposes;"" but 
we seem best to fulfil the intentions of Provi- 
dence, when each individual continues active 
and diligent in his own vocation; and few have 
left greater memorials behind them than the late 
Duke of Atholl, whose forests, bridges, roads, 
and houses, while they ornamented his estate, 
spread industry and cheerfulness, where former- 
ly there had been idleness and want. A great 
political economist has discovered that the pros- 
perity of a country depends on every man exert- 
ing himself in the utmost degree to promote his 



370 KILLIECRANKIE. 

own interest, and while the Duke metamorphosed 
his own barren heaths into fruitful fields, he also 
changed an indolent peasantry into active, dili- 
gent, and happy labourers. 

The attachment his Grace inspired was such, 
that the Highlanders would admit nothing that 
they thought to his prejudice, and when a 
stranger formerly asked one of the Duke of 
AtholFs foresters, if his master spoke Gaelic, the 
man, having recently returned from attending 
his Grace in a shooting excursion to the hill of 
Keichnacaapex, confidently replied, " Och, yes! 
the Duke speaks Gaelic fine ! 'Twas only t'other 
day, when I was following him to the hills, his 
Grace turned round to me, and pointed with his 
finger, saying, ' Keichnacaapex, Donald /' Och 
yes ! he speaks Gaelic fine !"" 

The weather was as beautiful as the scenery, 
when we drove next morning towards the noble 
hills and castle of Blair-Athol, along miles of 
aged ash trees, oaks, and beeches, admiring and 
criticising a rapid succession of beautiful seats, 
and, to sum up all, threading through the very 
essence of Highland beauty, the pass of Killie- 
crankie, which every individual should see, who 



KILLIECRANKIE. 371 

has an eye in his head. The landscape is so en- 
chanting, I could scarely believe ray eyes when 
I looked at it. How many of our countrymen 
once expired on this battle-field .' and it might 
almost add a pang to death itself, when the eye 
gazed its last on scenes so bright and attractive. 
The rapid Garry roaring fiercely along its rocky 
bed, the cultivated fields, the wooded hills, the 
towering mountains, the gay little gardens, and 
the regiment of villas, are beautiful enough to 
make one dream for a moment, in spite of pre- 
cept and experience, that there might be such a 
thing on earth as perfect happiness. In the 
most romantic part of this magnificent glen 
stands an old grey stone, raised in memory of 
" The bloody Claverhouse," as one party name 
him, and " The bold Dundee," as others insist 
he should be called, who died here, like Nelson, 
in the moment of victory, both conquering and 
conquered. It was an amusing scene which took 
place once, when a very aged Lady Elphinstone 
being introduced to Claverhouse, he politely re- 
marked to her, " You must have seen many in- 
teresting things in your day, Madam ?"' To 
which she dryly answered, " 'Deed no, Sir, ex- 



372 LUDE. 

cept when I was young, that we had one Knox 
(leaving us wi' his clavers, and now we have a 
Clavers deaving us wi' his knocks !" 

In the most romantic part of our drive, we 
met an elegant young lady, in a riding habit, 
hat, and green veil, mounted — no ! not on horse- 
back, but on the top of the mail ! clinging to the 
coach-box, and gazing about, evidently in so fine 
a frenzy of delight that, could poetry possibly be 
inspired on the top of a coach, she had certainly 
found a rhyme, — at least if there be one in the 
world, — for Killiecrankie. 

Among the fine plantations at Lude, an ele- 
gant new house is rapidly growing up a Id Burn, 
which promises to be a very successful hit. The 
spacious windows command a superb view of the 
Garry for several miles, and of many rugged hills, 
with totally unspellable names. Here Mr. M'ln- 
roy showed us the finest bowling-green I ever 
beheld, on which the lovers of bowls and other 
" gymnastic exercises'" may amuse themselves. 
Games out of doors seem so wholesome and ex- 
hilirating, that the old grow young, and the 
young forget to grow old when practising them. 
Active habits prolong the enjoyment of boyish 



LUDE. 373 

spirits, long after a man of mere clubs and news- 
papers has subsided into his fire-side arm-chair, 
as a fixture for life, and every man who wishes 
well to himself, should cultivate a taste for what- 
ever energetic amusement takes him off the 
hearth-rug. A clergyman in the Highlands 
lately objected so strongly to a cricket-ground 
being established in his parish, that the party of 
gentlemen who had begun the plan relinquished 
it; but if more innocent recreations were encou- 
raged for all classes in Scotland, there would 
probably be fewer vices. It is amazing how 
creditably some persons get through their lives, 
without exertion of any kind, by rising late, doz- 
ing in the evening, and lounging all day, actual- 
ly doing nothing ; but the very essence of health 
and usefulness is found in the activity with 
which we devote a due portion of time to all 
things that can lawfully occupy it, not allowing 
relaxation to interfere with business, and least 
of all with religion, but making it consistent with 
the rest which our minds require for entering on 
the duties of both. 

The late proprietor of Lude, General Robert- 
son, who waged incessant legal warfare against 



374 CASTLE BLAIR. 

the late Duke of Atholl, was particularly an- 
noyed at his Grace for claiming a right to hunt 
deer over all this estate. When Prince Leo- 
pold visited at the Castle of Blair, the Duke 
gave his vassal warning that he intended next 
day to exercise his privilege for the entertain- 
ment of his royal guest. Accordingly the deer 
were driven down, and everything promised a 
delightful day's sport, when, under pretence of 
doing all honour to the illustrious stranger, the 
General fired off a grand salute, which scattered 
the herd to the farthest limit of the forest. 

The massive old Castle of Blair, the ancient 
fortalice of the Earldom of Atholl, has seen its 
best days, having been dismantled in 1745 by 
order of government, when the towers, pinnacles, 
and battlements were thrown down, and the 
elevation, which was seven stories high, became 
lowered to four, having been literally beheaded. 
Such was the thickness of these venerable walls, 
and the adhesiveness of the cement, that this 
barbarous act could only be perpetrated by suc- 
cessive explosions of gunpowder, but everything 
that makes a castle ornamental was persever- 
ingly destroyed. The first sensation of tourists 



CASTLE BLAIR. 375 

on beholding this once pre-eminent building, must 
now be disappointment, but within, sufficient 
accommodation remains for the exercise of 
princely hospitality, and one of the apartments 
is embellished by a peculiarly handsome orna- 
mented ceiling. 

In " the ""IS," the only date remembered here 
except the " '45," the Duke of Atholl took the 
safe side, while his heir apparent, the Marquis 
of Tullibardine, zealously engaged himself with 
the opposite party, and joined the Earl of Mar. 
Having been attainted, he took refuge in France, 
and his politic father got an act of parliament 
to disinherit him, securing the estate and title 
to the next brother. The Marquis, now ren- 
dered desperate, became so eager in the cause, 
that four years afterwards he joined the Spanish 
invasion, when, being defeated at Glensheil, a 
high price was offered for his head, but he es- 
caped. A third time, in '45, he joined in that 
attempt which ended so calamitously for him, 
but so happily for us protestants, long life to us ! 
The Marquis made his escape from CuUoden, 
but his horse failing, he surrendered in broken 
health and spirits, was imprisoned in the Tower 



376 CASTLE BLAIR. 

during the rest of his unlucky clays, and died in 
less than a month. Who does not feel for so 
spirited and heroic a nobleman, who, from a mis- 
taken sense of duty, forfeited his birthright as 
Duke of Atholl in Scotland, Sovereign Lord of 
Man, and Lord Strange in England. When 
the Castle of Blair became, during his life, the 
property of his junior brother the Duke, it was 
attacked by a still younger brother, Lord George 
Murray, but withstood the siege successfully. 
The fortifications were again proved invulner- 
able during the celebrated defence of them, 
made with a mere handful of men, by Sir An- 
drew Agnew ; but it was at last finally, as we 
have seen, cashiered, broke, disarmed, and dis- 
missed His Majesty's service. 

The lucky Duke who had superseded his 
elder brother, acquired also, in a somewhat 
questionable way, the estate of his cousin Lord 
Nairn, who became ruined in the Stuart cause. 
A general understanding prevailed in those days, 
that when a forfeited estate was put up to auc- 
tion, a friend ought to bid for the proprietor, 
and no rival should compete, that it might thus 
be restored literally for an old song. The Duke, 



CASTLE BLAIR. 377 

as head of the family, stood ostensibly forward, 
got the property knocked down to himself for 
a trifle, and having a good notion what a bar- 
gain means, either made no previous agreement 
with Lord Nairn, or did not find his cousin's 
money forthcoming, so, one way or other, Strath- 
aird, near Perth, has remained stationary with 
the Dukes of Atholl ever since, and is likely to 
continue so. 

Lord George Murray, whom I already men- 
tioned, was forfeited for the Glensheil affair, but 
pardoned, and afterwards perseveringly joined 
in the attempt of "'45, when he became Prince 
Charles's Lieutenant-General. He was again 
attainted, but dying before his brother the Duke, 
his son's claim, as heir to the uncle, was inge- 
niously carried through the House of Lords, 
by means of the great Lord Mansfield ; and 
liaving married his uncle's only daughter, " the 
Lady of Man and Baroness Strange," their son 
became the late Duke, of honourable memory. 
You will think I have torn a leaf out of Burke 
or Debrett this morning, but I do like to un- 
ravel and wind up the long line of an ancient 
family, especially when standing on the spot 



378 CASTLE BLAIR. 

which has been commemorated by their deeds 
from age to age. In case the Herald King at 
Arms should become jealous of my poaching 
on his manor, I shall now conclude, however, by 
referring you to the History of Scotland, where 
" for further particulars enquire within." 

The editor of a fashionable magazine having 
said, when reviewing a lady*'s book lately, that 
he could not help falling asleep over it, was sur- 
prised to receive, some days afterwards, an 
elegant night-cap, with her best regards ; and I 
might as well enclose one to you now, in case 
of accidents, as this last epistle is rather a heavy 
article, and may prove equally somniferous. 



379 



LOGIE RAIT. 



I won't describe, — description is my forte ; 
But ev'ry fool describes in these bright days. 

Byron. 



My dear Cousin, — This letter is begun inside 
the trunk of an ash tree at Logie Rait, measur- 
ing fifty-three feet in circumference, and here I 
should like to imprison for life all travellers who 
deny that Scotland can produce fine timber. 
Another of nearly equal magnitude stands on 

the opposite side of a broad river, and A 

is at this moment boating across to do homage 
at its shrine, while a distant glimpse quite satis- 
fies my enthusiasm. I would not wish to be 
censorious on other countries, or very partial to 
my own, but the ash trees at Richmond might 
be placed in a flower-pot beside these ! 



380 LOGIE RAIT. 

The road from Blair in this direction, cross- 
ing at the Bridge of Pitlochry, is as up and 
down, as narrow, and as totally without para- 
pets, as if we were travelling round the rim of 
several great mill-wheels, but we had a pair of 
worthy old Dobbins to draw us, and it became 
well worth the fright to see so lovely a country, 
though, if we had encountered cart or carriage, 
we should have been like the Highlanders meet- 
ing on a plank, one or the other must have gone 
over. 

I am weary of admiring ! something superla- 
tively ugly would be almost a relief to the eye, 
but that is not to be had in Perthshire. Our 
post-boy was remarkably attentive in pointing 
his whip towards every object peculiarly deserv- 
ing of notice, and at one place I was about to 
extemporize a very sentimental story for an ex- 
ceedingly romantic and really elegant villa to 
which he directed our notice, when he spoiled 
all by mentioning that it had been bought as 
the rural retreat of a well-known hotel-keeper 
and coach-proprietor in Edinburgh, who left this 
neighbourhood when a boy, with only half-a- 
crown in his pocket, and who, by persevering 



LOGIE RAIT. 381 

industry, gained enough to return here as a 
landed proprietor. He must greatly have miss- 
ed the mail coaches, and did not long survive 
this experiment of rural felicity, the estate hav- 
ing descended, on his death, to a nephew. 

Here the hedges of brilliant roses, the rocky 
precipices, and larch-covered hills, form a com- 
bination of indescribable beauty, varied by a 
foaming stream, which gives life to the whole. 
After passing Logic Rait, however, the country 
became more English, with rich undulating mea- 
dows, massy trees, corn fields, and a perfectly 
level road, though enclosed within a double 
range of green-hills and ditto wooded. We 
now passed another succession of small proper- 
ties, too thickly studded to be extensive, in con- 
sequence of which it has been humorously re- 
marked of one place, that the house is as broad 
as the estate. These residences are all chiefly 
inhabited by the royal clan of Stewart. When 
the present Duke of Orleans overheard some 
Highlanders once, in a steam-boat, discussing 
their different clans, he came good-humouredly 
forward and said, " I am of a greater clan than 
any of you ! I am a Stuart !" The historian of 



382 LOGIE RAIT. 

the Highland regiments, General Stewart, who 
had concentrated many branches of the family 
in his own person, used sometimes to be heard 
reflecting, in a truly Celtic tone, on the alarm- 
ing diminution of the still numerous clan, say- 
ing, " There's very few Stewarts in the country 
now ! There*'s Stewart of Garth ! I'm Stewart of 
Garth ! There's Stewart of Drummacharry ! Fm 
Stewart of Drummacharry ! There's Stewart of 
Kynnachan ! I'm Stewart of Kynnachan ! !" 

The letters in this neighbourhood meet with so 
odd a reception when they arrive, that I do not 
intend to correspond with any of the inhabitants. 
We observed at Clochfoldie, and other places, 
that a hollow stone, conspicuously white-washed, 
is built into the park wall, containing a narrow 
slit, which serves as a letter-box, and the post- 
man, running along the road, blows a blast on 
his horn and there deposits all the news and 
gossip of the day, in so quiet a receptacle that 
the whole packet may lie dormant for weeks still 
some one has leisure or curiosity to extricate 
it from this cold imprisonment. A similar plan 
is still adopted in the eastern parts of Yorkshire, 
where I saw last year something which resem- 



LOGIE RAIT. 383 

bled a lamp-post, stationed on the road-side 
near every farm-house, carrying a wooden box 
on the top to receive the family despatches. 
Letters have lost all their rank and aristocracy 
now, by the abolition of franks, which also dimi- 
nishes the importance of a seat in Parliament 
more than you or other sensible people would 
believe. The first thing a new M.P. did for- 
merly, was to rehearse the pattern of his frank, 
how to distort his hand-writing so that the sig- 
nature might be sufficiently unreadable, and 
whether to sign it in the north-east corner of 
his cover, or in the south-west, or to arrange it, 
as a certain M.P. did, in a semi-circle, like the 
bow of Cupid. We never used to be in com- 
pany formerly with a Member of Parliament at 
dinner, without a general whisper being circu- 
lated round the room that an opportunity had 
at last occurred for securing a frank, while he 
had a daily opportunity of conferring favours 
on ten eager applicants, all volubly grateful on 
behalf of themselves and their country corres- 
pondents ; but IMembers of Parliament need 
scarcely learn to write now unless they please. 
The village of Weem has become a model of 



384 WEEM. 

cheerfulness and comfort under the active and 
benevolent care of Sir Neil Menzies, the proprie- 
tor. Instead of pursuing those sudden and 
violent schemes of improvement which, even 
when successful, occasion much intermediate dis- 
tress, he has gradually, but with admirable effect, 
encouraged industry, and rebuilt by degrees, as 
the old tenants died or removed, every cottage 
on the estate, now almost unrivalled for its thriv- 
ing well-ordered aspect, throughout a circuit 
of many miles. We were told that Sir Neil 
enables his tenantry to manufacture the whole 
produce of their farms in the neighbourhood, 
which insures them a certain market. For 
this purpose he has established two distilleries to 
consume the grain, and besides, to dispose of the 
wool, a most successful carpet manufactory, 
which might put Kidderminster out of counte- 
nance. I admired particularly one carpet made 
here, which displayed the colours of the Menzies' 
tartan, the pattern being branches of scarlet ge- 
ranium on a white ground. 

Not a drain or an enclosure seems wanting 
on this vast estate, where the hedges for miles 
around are like walls of leaves, and the cattle 



CASTLE MENZIES. 385 

appeared of such first-rate excellence, that I 
heard without surprise of their having gained the 
highest prizes in succession at the cattle shows 
of Stirling, Aberdeen, and Inverness. 

The extreme attachment of the people here to 
their chief, is quite of the old school, and found- 
ed not merely on ancient associations, but on the 
daily and hourly experience of almost parental 
liberality and kindness in promoting the inter- 
ests, and even the amusements of old and young, 
which are encouraged and patronized with un- 
ceasing attention to their happiness. Here, too, 
the sick are personally visited and assisted with 
such unsparing zeal, that none seem neglected 
in the wide circuit of this very extensive estate. 
1 was particularly interested in seeing an old 
man of ninety-eight, a pensioner of the family, 
who walks daily from the village to the castle for 
work, and seems to think the world could scarce- 
ly get on without him, and least of all the chiefs 
family ; an agreeable delusion in which he is al- 
lowed to continue, though often there is great 
difficulty in inventing any employment suited to 
his very limited powers. 

Near the venerable old house of Castle Men- 

a 



386 CASTLE MENZIES. 

zies grow the finest sycamore trees in Scotland, 
overshadowing the beautiful park, which is bar- 
ricadoed round with wooded hills and lofty moun- 
tains. Close behind the castle rises a singularly 
tall abrupt hill, almost a sheer precipice from 
top to bottom, and charmingly varied by trees, 
which have grappled hold of the rock, and 
manage, in a way of their own, to keep their 
stations, but you and I would be very sorry 
for ourselves, if we seemed as precariously situ- 
ated as many of them are. 

Near the door of Castle Menzies may be seen 
" The Chieftain's Stone," a large round block of 
granite, weighing more than I venture to guess, 
which the next heir, on succeeding to the supre- 
macy of this clan, was always expected to carry 
in his arms up stairs to the dining-room, where 
his health was drank. It would be almost as 
easy to lift the house, or to run away with Schi- 
hallion at once; but if this achievement would 
have puzzled Hercules, there is a Bacchanalian 
cup in the Macleod family, almost equally defy- 
ing ordinary power, formed to contain a bottle 
and a half of claret, which each successive chief 
is expected to drain at a draught. I think such 



CASTLE MENZIES. 387 

an achievement would have made Bacchus him- 
self become mortal. 

Castle Menzies is one of the few very large old 
houses in Perthshire, — " Long has it stood — still 
honoured let it stand," The walls are ten feet 
thick, being proof against the assault of a foe, 
but always open to a friend, as the scenery 
around is not more truly Highland than the 
welcome within. Some centuries ago, the yet 
more ancient family residence stood on a differ- 
ent site, but the clan Menzies having peacefully 
assembled once in great numbers for a christen- 
ing festivity, the ancestor of Stewart of Garth 
marched down with a host of retainers, besieged 
the old fortifications, barricadoed the doors, and 
set fire to the house, on which occasion a hun- 
dred Menzies's perished ! Murder was committed 
in those days, both wholesale and retail, parti- 
cularly by smoking, but in many Highland cot- 
tages now, the inhabitants appear so thoroughly 
seasoned with peat and tobacco, that it would 
be no easy matter to put them out of their usual 
atmosphere. Many old women we saw during 
our tour, who looked themselves like cigars ready 
to be lighted. 



388 CASTLE MENZIES. 

The new Castle, if it can be called new, was 
built in 1573, by the same architect who reared 
one at Taymouth, since razed to the ground, and 
it is said that these two edifices occupied eleven 
years in building. An elegant modern addition, 
uniform with the old edifice, is now in progress 
under the eye of Burn, who has all the quarries 
in Scotland at work. The windows here exhibit 
very handsome gabled ornaments on the exte- 
rior, and within we saw closets cut in the thick- 
ness of the wall, quite a la Mrs. Radcliffe. 
After the family papers had narrowly escaped 
the fire and ravages consequent on Garth''s at- 
tack, they were deposited here in a safe, like 
that of a bank, or more like a square stone well, 
entered by a trap -door from above, and inacces- 
sible to fire, air, earth, or water — as secure, in 
short, as the manuscripts of Pompeii. 

In the sitting-room here, the embrasures of 
the windows are so deep, that with a curtain let 
down, they form a comfortable and commodious 
apartment, so cheerful and bright sometimes, I 
could fancy myself living in the sun itself, though, 
perhaps, the cheerful society within adds a beam 
or two of vivacity to those venerable walls. It 



GLENLYON. 389 

is astonishing in so antique a Highland residence 
to hear nothing of a ghost ; Mr. Burn should cer- 
tainly be requested to supply the deficiency by 
building a haunted room, 

Where the curtains will shake of their own accord, 
And the raven croak at the window board. 

Near one extremity of the park at Castle 
Menzies, the Tay and the Lyon meet in a scene 
of such marvellous beauty, that I sat down for 
half-an-hour to be in ecstacies, and to pity at my 
leisure all those who live elsewhere. Through a 
long range of richly cultivated meadows, these 
two broad rivers rush violently into each other's 
arms, and the mountains are all gathered round 
to witness the scene. One tall peak of Schi- 
hallion had caught a side glimpse of sunshine, 
which lighted up its usually frowning aspect, and 
the waving forests on every neighbouring hill 
were tipped with golden light. 

We drove seven miles through the narrow- 
mountainous valeof Glenlyon, an exquisite speci- 
men of Highland beauty, being enlivened by the 
sparkling river, and hemmed in by hills glowing 
with heather. It might have made a schoolboy 



390 GLENLYON. 

tremble to see how the birches were waving over 
our heads ; and here the mountains are so lofty, 
that villages lying at their base are three or four 
months every year without seeing the sun. The 
river Lyon, which now looked like a flood of light, 
once ran red with the blood of the slaughtered 
Macgregors, when, after a fierce conflict, the 
conquerors washed their swords in the stream. 

Not a feature in this landscape could be alter- 
ed without injury, and a painter might advan- 
tageously spend his whole life in taking views, 
every one of which would appear completely dif- 
ferent. In some places you seem to have dis- 
covered an unknown world, never trod by human 
footstep, then comes an old ruin, hiding its 
decay in wreaths of ivy and roses, next appears 
a smiling village, afterwards a long colonnade of 
superb plane or ash trees, then a thriving farm, 
here and there a church ; and the old burying- 
ground at Fortingal is particularly interesting. 
Go where you will, " we cannot leave the foot- 
steps of the dead," and I often think how strange 
it is to consider, that for several thousand years, 
hundreds of men have died every day, and hun- 
dreds are as regularly born to succeed them. 



GLENLYON. 39X 

It has been a long and ceaseless procession for 
centuries, from the cradle to the grave, in which 
year after year new actors appear and vanish ; 
but our turn to walk for a time along the busy 
scenes of life has now come, and then, like the 
millions who have preceded us, we shall plunge 
into the gulf of eternity, making way for those 
in rapid succession who follow. None can stay 
his own progress — none can choose when he shall 
be summoned upon the stage of life, or torn away 
from its fleeting scenes ; but the Christian need 
fear no evil, as there is prepared for us a holy 
garment to wear during our progress, the robe 
of our Saviour's righteousness, sheltered in 
which we may safely and peacefully pass from 
the vicissitudes of time, into the glorious man- 
sions of eternity. His followers and disciples 
may confidently go forward to join the many 
who have preceded them into the regions of 
glory, and there wait for the many who shall yet 
be called to join the heavenly host in their songs 
of everlasting joy and praise. 

In this church-yard many ancient graves were 
overshadowed once by the largest yew tree ever 
known, which could have furnished bows for her 



392 GLENLYON. 

Majesty's whole body-guard of archers. It mea- 
sured fifty-six feet round, and, until lately, car- 
riages attending a funeral used to drive through 
the hollow trunk. There only remains now one 
little monument of its existence, in the shape of 
a small stunted fragment, not larger than a 
tombstone. Seeing this forlorn leafless relic, one 
might be apt to forget that it ever was young 
and flourishing, as children who behold the aged 
survivors of a past generation, look upon them 
often with a sort of contemptuous pity, and fancy 
they are made only for decay and death. There 
are three distinct stages which we must expect 
to experience in the attachment of those around 
us. The fond and partial affection of our parents 
in childhood, is exchanged in after life for the 
companionship and confidence of cotemporaries, 
but when these early associates are swept into 
the grave, if we live to see that painful hour 
when the closest and dearest ties of an earthly 
existence are severed by the tomb, then comes 
the time when we must be satisfied with the 
compassionate sympathy of a subsequent gene- 
ration. When memory, instead of hope, becomes 
our only link to the worlds an aged Christian 



GLENLYON. 393 

must fervently long for that hour when " the 
weary springs of life stand still at last," and when 
he shall be born into a new and better world' 
there to regain the long lost friends, forgotten 
perhaps by all but himself, whom once he loved 
and knew. In such a case, who would not envy 
the weary pilgrim, when closing his eyes on the 
sorrows and infirmities of a present life, in the 
believing hope that his sufferings are over, and 
the victory won for him by a once crucified and 
now glorified Redeemer ? 

" Oh, mourn not for them, their grief is o'er ; 
Oh, weep not for them, they weep no more ; 
For deep is their sleep, tho' cold and hard 
Their pillow may be in the old kirk-yard." 

Along this glen, we passed the scene of a tra- 
gical event, in which there certainly seems to 
have been almost an instance of second sight, 
A most promising and intelligent young man, Mr. 
Campbell, factor to Sir Neil Menzies, was most 
unfortunately killed here five years ago, by his 
horse taking fright, and leaping over the parapet 
of a bridge, when both the animal and his rider 



394 GLENLYON. 

were dashed to pieces. On examining his papers, 
it was found that, in the morning of that fatal 
day, he had risen particularly early, and made 
his will, leaving every article he possessed to dif- 
ferent friends. Even his wardrobe and pocket- 
handkerchiefs were specified, and not a single 
thing omitted, except the clothes he rode out in. 
We must not claim second-sight, however, for 
the well-known General Stewart of Garth, whose 
residence, Drummacharry, being in the glen, he 
gave a farewell-dinner here to all his neighbours, 
on the occasion of his departing to take a com- 
mand in the West Indies, and made a speech, in- 
viting the whole party to reassemble at the same 
table that day three years ; but, alas ! before as 
many months had elapsed, that brave and talent- 
ed officer fell a victim to the climate. His estate 
has been sold to Sir Archibald Campbell of Bur- 
mese celebrity, but I did not hear whether he 
fulfilled his predecessor's promise, of a dinner on 
the day specified. It is curious that no hospita- 
ble bon-vivant ever thought of instituting an an- 
nual dinner, with ices, turkeys, and champaign, 
in commemoration of his own memory, to be con- 



GLENLYON. 395 

tinued as long as any one survived who had per- 
sonally known him. It would be something new, 
and might ensure his not being forgotten under 
a certain number of years, which is by no means 
a very easy object for any one to accomplish in 
these busy stirring times. 



396 



TAYMOUTH. 



He saw apartments where appeared to rise 
What seem'd as men, and fix'd on him their eyes — 
Pictures that spoke ; and there were mirrors tall. 
Doubling each wonder by reflecting all. 

Cbabbe. 

My dear Cousin, — It is not always true, as 
writing masters persist in telling their pupils, 
that " Familiarity breeds contempt." On the 
contrary, every day, as it increases my intimacy 
with the Highlands, increases also my respect 
and admiration for them, so that I wish to learn 
by heart every nook and cranny throughout their 
wide extent, and feel convinced that life is too 
short for studying thoroughly, and enjoying suf- 
ficiently, their inexhaustible beauties. 

We this morning treated our eyes to a sight 
of Taymouth, anciently Balloch, one of the chief 



TAYAIOUTH. 397 

glories of Scotland, belonging for many centuries 
past to the ancestors of Lord Breadalbane, the 
present proprietor, whose family motto has this 
peculiarity, that such of the Campbells as are 
branches of the same stem, all carry a sentence 
which replies to their leader. The Marquis says 
" Follow me;" to which one family answers, " I 
follow;" another, " Thus far;" a third, " I bide 
my time ;" a fourth, " Victory follows the brave ;" 
and a fifth, " I follow what is right;" a most 
judicious limitation to their allegiance. The late 
Peer somewhat perplexed the ignorant High- 
landers, who had been accustomed from time im- 
memorial to call their noble landlords, " Breada- 
a-albane," by insisting on the more modern ap- 
pellation of " My Lo-o-ord," to which they are 
now becoming somewhat accustomed, though it 
still seems to them a great diminution of dignity. 
The Emperor of Russia once declared that if 
he were not Alexander he would be a British 
country gentleman ; but I go far beyond him, 
being convinced that Taymouth Oastle would 
be incomparably preferable to the Imperial pa- 
lace at Petersburgh, and you will think the 



398 TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 

same as soon as you have seen both, which, by 
the way, I have not yet done myself. 

The rushing Tay devolves from its parent 
lake at the west end of the park, which is varied 
by fine specimens of forest trees in every variety, 
and situated between two ranges of mountains, 
wooded to their summits, and torn asunder to 
make way for the broad expanse of pleasure 
grounds between. 

With a few architectural faults, this house 
is a noble baronial pile, which has few rivals in 
the Highlands, but the nearer anything ap- 
proaches to being a ne plus ultra^ the more in- 
clined people are to exhibit that most universal 
of all talents, a taste for fault-finding, of which 
I must now give you a specimen. Those who 
are so fastidious that they cannot exist without 
perfection, should leave this world as soon as 
possible ; but while the objections of critics are 
often frivolous and vexatious, I like to hear the 
opinions of judges, who keep all their eyes open 
for beauty, and only look askance at defects ; 
accordingly, I agree with those who object to a 
wing of the old house having been allowed to 



TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 399 

survive, which is obviously incongruous with the 
modern castle, and breaks the line in a plan 
decidedly meant to be formal. This excrescence, 
which has baffled the united taste of the pre- 
sent proprietor and of the modern architect, 
was retained by the late Marquis as his home 
while he reared this elegant castle, and he be- 
came so attached to it that the addition would 
at last have been thrown down by him rather 
than the original. The new edifice forms a 
large solid square, flanked by handsome round 
towers at each corner. One wing on the right 
contains an elegant private chapel, embellished 
with a highly ornamented tower, and the cor- 
responding wing, — which does not, however, 
correspond at all, — is a long gothic edifice con- 
taining the stables and offices. 

If any description could do half-quarter jus- 
tice to this unsurpassable place, you would say 
my sketch must be " plus belle que Id veritt!''' 
Only fancy its terrace winding by the river side, 
its three miles of beeches, its lime-trees, — form- 
ing a gothic arch of nearly a mile long, — the 
forest glades, the flowery meadows, the rocks, 
and wooded hills ! If a fairy offered to add 



400 TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 

whatever we might propose to embellish the 
scene, what could you ask for more ? The gar- 
dens are delicious, and nothing enchanted me 
more than a fancy dairy, built some years ago, 
of transparent spar, like rough blocks of ice, 
projecting so as to catch every sun-beam, and 
to reflect back all the prismatic colours of the 
rainbow. It looks as if an ice-berg had been 
stranded here and excavated for the occasion, 
or as if the Empress Catherine had sent over a 
specimen of her celebrated frozen palace to as- 
tonish the Highlands. 

Under a grove of trees, I suddenly observed 
a noble herd of red deer, and it would have 
driven any sportsman crazy with delight to see 
these graceful creatures all starting up at our 
approach. They stared for some time, then 
trotted away in a line, tossing their branching 
horns with inexpressible dignity, and after per- 
forming a sort of military movement round the 
park, they formed in a half circle, wheeled ra- 
pidly past us, and took up a commanding posi- 
tion on a high bank very near where we stood, 
appearing there to the utmost advantage. 

At this moment I began to have a glimmer- 



TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 401 

ing recollection that this was the very spot 
where, two years ago, one of these very animals 
attacked Mr. Fox Maulers carriage-horses, and 
killed one, besides severely wounding the other. 
This caused me some little panic on beholding 
the regiment of antlers bristling in formidable 
array so very near, and on turning a sharp cor- 
ner we found ourselves close to one tall stately- 
looking hart. He seemed perfectly tame, and 
allo^^ed me to pat him, becoming gradually so 
propitiated by our friendly attentions, that he 
turned to join the party, and actually walked 
at least a mile in our company, evidently much 
pleased with his new associates, and looking so 
intelligent that he seemed to understand all we 
said. The red-deer are very dangerous, how- 
ever, in this half-tame state, and one transport^ 
ed lately to Ireland, became so furious that 
after killingf one man and attacking a second, 
he had to be shot. During our progress, there- 
fore, I wished it had been possible civilly to get 
rid of our new companion, as I did not particu- 
larly enjoy walking in this way, arm in arm with 
so formidable a stranger, but he behaved ex- 
tremely well, and seemed really sorry to leave 



402 TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 

us, when A slammed the gate in his face, 

on our quitting the park. 

Several bisons from South America were 
likewise grazing near the house at Taymouth, 
so we were in a perfect zoological garden, with- 
out the advantage of cages, which are, on the 
whole, rather desirable under such circumstances. 
I was afterwards informed, that these far-tra- 
velled foreigners are, even in their own country, 
exceedingly fierce, but in the rich pastures of 
Perthshire the bisons become still more irritable. 
They did not, however, take the trouble of toss- 
ing us ! 

The Baron's hall, at Taymouth Oastle, with 
its cathedral-like door, is a splendid room, the 
wainscoat of richly carved oak, the windows of 
painted glass, emblazoned with the family arms, 
and the oak floor so extremely slippery that 
only a skilful skaiter should venture across. 

In the drawing-room hang two portraits, al- 
leged to be Vandyke's best. That artist's 
great patron, with whom he frequently resided, 
was Rich, Earl of Holland, one of the hand- 
somest men of the age ; and ample justice has 
been done here to the chivalric appearance of 



TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 403 

that nobleman, so admired at court that Charles 
the First became jealous, and caused him to be 
imprisoned within his own house. The Earl's 
politics, like the Vicar of Bray''s, were most ac- 
commodating, but, nevertheless, he died on the 
scaffold at last, for making one final effort in 
behalf of his royal master. That melancholy 
end is what I always expect to hear of, when 
admiring any fine chevalier-looking portrait of 
a distinguished man in those turbulent days. 
The costume of this picture is too splendid for 
almost any court in the present time. What 
would Louis Philippe's mud-bespattered cour- 
tiers say to Lord Holland's white boots trimmed 
with point, a dress of white and gold, and a 
scarlet cloak flowing down behind, while his 
magnificent armour, which seems to have been 
that moment put off, is glittering beside him. 

The other Vandyke represents Lord Hol- 
land's elder brother, the Earl of Warwick, High 
Admiral of England, and a steady supporter of 
Cromwell's. In those days he kept open house 
for the clergy, saying, " I make merry with them 
and at them." This picture is very animated, 
the dress beautiful, and the silken hose sa ex- 



404 TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 

ceedingly pink that they would put a rose to 
the blush, but in these days silk stockings were 
borrowed even by a crowned monarch, and few 
noblemen being rich enough to have any, the 
painter has shewn them due attention. 

Plere also we observed several pictures by 
Jameson, the Scottish Vandyke, whose prices 
would be an excellent example to modern 
artists, for we might all sit, if portraits of 
first-rate merit cost only L.l, Ss. 4d. per 
head ! Most of the Taymouth ancestors are 
now in London, getting themselves refreshed, 
re-gilt, and re-varnished, but we saw the first 
Lord Breadalbane, one of the cleverest men in 
his day, who married the daughter of Lord 
Holland, and, when she died, he gained large 
estates in Caithness, by espousing a widow, 
heiress to the ancient Earls of Caithness. Hav- 
ing occasion to conquer his newly acquired ter- 
ritory, he caused a ship, laden with whisky, to 
be purposely stranded off the coast, and when 
the people assembled to plunder it, he surprised 
theui in a state of intoxication, and defeated the 
revellers with great slaughter. 

In the new addition to Taymouth Castle, some 



GLAMMIS CASTLE. 405 

of the sitting-rooms appear only to be accessible 
by passing through the chapel; and the ceiling 
of the library has already cost L.300. It is most 
elaborately decorated in the antique style, with 
deep cornices, and a profusion of curious devices ; 
but in order fully to examine and appreciate all 
the ornaments, a visitor would require to pros- 
trate himself for some hours on the floor. 

About twelve miles beyond Cupar, in the rich 
valley of Strathmore, stands the beautiful castle 
of Glammis, a tall building nearly one hundred 
feet high, with a world of spires, towers, turrets, 
and battlements; but its greatest peculiarity is 
the shape, having four wings projecting like 
spokes of a wheel, towards different points of the 
compass. It has for ages past belonged' to the 
Earls of Strathmore, who must have been, if 
painters did not flatter in former days, as they 
sometimes do now, a singularly handsome race. 
The most interesting event in this family was 
the tragical fate of the young, innocent, and beau- 
tiful Lady Glammis, publicly and ignominiously 
burned to death for witchcraft on the Oastlehill 
of Edinburgh. She was sister to the Earl of An- 
gus, whom James the Fifth, his step-son, hated. 



406 GLAMMIS CASTLE. 

and his royal detestation against the house of 
Douglas, led him to accuse this amiable lady of 
" spelling away his life." His Majesty certainly 
contrived to shorten hers ! Lady Glammis"" son, 
a mere child, was forfeited, imprisoned, and con- 
demned to be executed, but after the king's 
death he was restored. His eldest son, the 
chancellor, was slain by accident, in consequence 
of a feud with the Earl of Crawford; and his 
second son was the gruff Master of Glammis, who 
kept the door against King James during the 
famous raid of Euthven; and when the young 
monarch burst into tears, he dryly remarked, 
" Better that children weep than bearded men,'' 
a view of the subject which his Majesty never 
forgot. 

In later times there were six brothers in this 
family, who, each in succession, became Earl of 
Strathmore, and the last died a very amiable 
death when endeavouring to pacify some angry 
combatants in a brawl. 

As we are homeward-bound now, I expect 
soon to exchange writing for speaking, and nar- 
rative for dialogue, which will be a most welcome 
improvement in our intercourse, and I hope our 



GLAMMIS CASTLE. 407 

two minds will often strike a light between them. 
I have sometimes thought how curious it would be, 
if a volume were supernaturally to appear at the 
end of men's lives, containing all they have ever 
spoken. Some would be seen to have scarcely 
uttered so many words altogether as would fill 
a small duodecimo, while others have rattled out 
more in a day than most people in a year; but, 
as Pope says, the tongue is a race-horse, that 
runs the faster the less it carries. We shall 
both of course hit exactly the happy medium be- 
tween taciturnity and volubility ; meantime wish- 
ing you joy of having so voluminous a corre- 
spondent, I bid you once more, a very short 
adieu. 

Lost in earth, in air, or main, 
Kindred atoms meet again ! 



408 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 



Give ear unto my song, 

And if you find it wondrous short, 

It cannot hold you long. 

Goldsmith. 

My dear Cousin, — This is the only letter I 
have yet felt any regret in sitting down to write, 
being my P.P.C. It is always unpleasant to do 
anything for the last time ; even when finally 
stepping out of an old hack-chaise, I could al- 
most muster up some fine feelings for the occa- 
sion. Conceive then my emotion, on parting with 
this veteran pen, split up to the hilt, and on giv- 
ing it a final dip into ink as thick as a pudding, 
but one great secret of writing is, to know the 
proper time for stopping, and I agree with a very 
sensible French writer who remarks, " (Test le 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 409 

• role (Tun sot d'etre invportun. Uhomme sage, 
" s^ait disparoitre le moment qui precede celui ou 
" il seroit de trop^'' 

A gay annual meeting takes place in Perth- 
shire at this season, for the practice and exhibi- 
tion of all those athletic games and exercises for 
which the Highlanders used formerly to be so 
pre-eminent, and as it is held this year, close to 
Blair-Athol, at the bridge of Tilt, we thought 
our best compensation for not seeing Lord Eg- 
linton's Tilting would be, to join this rendezvous 
at the Tilt meeting, especially as we were invit- 
ed to accompany a party with whom it would 
have been a pleasure to go anywhere, and ac- 
cordingly we proceeded to what an English 
stranger called by mistake " the kilt meeting." 

Here, as well as at the Ayrshire tournament, 
the spectators would all have required the Hu- 
mane Society's apparatus to recover drowned 
persons, for the rain fell in such torrents, it really 
was a natural curiosity worth coming all the dis- 
tance to see. Though wind and weather did not 
permit, however, crowds remained many hours on 
the ground, all in full stare, and certainly a more 



410 BLAIR-ATHOL. 

curious exhibition can scarcely be fancied than 
those Olympic games of the North. 

On a grassy plain, like a magnified bowling- 
green, surrounded by a ring of wild and wooded 
mountains, we saw a brilliant circle of carriages, 
filled with ladies — all young and beautiful, of 
course — wearing arches of feathers over their 
heads, and gardens of flowers underneath their 
bonnets. Within this wreath of beauty and fa- 
shion, was collected a multitude of tall, fine-look- 
ing Highlanders, showily dressed in the gay tar- 
tans of their various clans. Here kilts, phila- 
begs, plaids, dirks. Highland bonnets, and eagles' 
feathers were all mingled in one dazzling medley, 
varied by the animated countenances of those 
who wore them, all glowing with health, excite- 
ment, and good humour. The scene was greatly 
enlivened by the warlike bagpipes, decorated 
with magnificent banners, and long streamers 
which floated like rainbows in the air ; and with- 
out doubt the most dignified looking human 
being who steps upon the earth, is a Highland 
piper in full costume, his feathers waving like 
cedar trees in his bonnet, while he blows througth 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 411 

his pipe, till he almost blows his head off, and 
struts about, as if he were leading all his clans- 
men to victory. We have never been distinctly 
told what was " the tune the cow died of,"" 
but I am convinced it could only be a Highland 
pibroch. 

The chieftains, noblemen, and gentlemen in 
general, wore the undress tartan livery of their 
clans, exactly similar to that of their tenants, 
servants, or dependents, and we were expected 
to distinguish the aristocracy from the demo- 
cracy, not by any advantages of dress and orna- 
ment, but by a native superiority of air, manner, 
and appearance. In some cases this was very 
easily done, for we could trace a dignity of ex- 
terior in those accustomed to authority and dis- 
tinction, carrying " pride in their port, and defi- 
ance in their eye," which announced at once a 
man of birth and rank, but, on the other hand, 
there were many illustrious individuals, who re- 
lied on our penetration rather too implicitly. 
Among so many fine soldier-like men, practised 
in fencing, dancing, and other manly exercises, 
it required something very nearly superhuman 



412 BLAIR- ATHOL. 

to cause an instinctive recognition of any person's 
real rank and consequence. If the officers in a 
regiment were all equipped exactly like the men, 
and indiscriminately mingled together, it might 
puzzle even a Field-Marshal, or a Lord in Wait- 
ing to discriminate the difference ; and even a 
Highland chief, in coarse tartan plaid, and blue 
bonnet, looks sometimes, to an ordinary eye, not 
very unlike a Highland drover. 

I have heard of such a contradiction in terms 
as " an aristocratic democrat," which may do in 
politics perhaps, but can scarcely be hit off 
in dress; and it is such voluntary levelling of 
their own external distinctions in the higher 
classes, which produces Radicalism and discon- 
tent among the lower orders. If noblemen and 
landed proprietors, instead of "hiding behind the 
veil of insignificancy," would take the trouble — 
for a trouble it certainly must be — to appear on 
all public occasions in a degree of state suitable 
to their dignity, we should hear less about the 
feelings of equality and insubordination, which are 
now so rapidly increasing among those who, being 
unable to estimate moral and intellectual pre- 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 413 

eminence, know nothing of great men but their 
outward aspect, and who observe little in that 
respect very obviously superior to themselves. 
You have often seen the sun, when shorn of his 
beams, look very like the moon, and I could 
fancy how convenient it would be to a pea- 
cock, if he could go about occasionally quite in- 
cog, without his tail, but then he must not be 
surprised if other birds think themselves as good 
as he. The old prov^erb is really mistaken in 
saying, that " pride feels no pain," because it is 
often put to a great deal of inconvenience by the 
external trappings of magnificence, which never- 
theless it is unfair towards all ranks of society, 
entirely to lay aside. 

A tall grand-looking Highlander in full cos- 
tume was pointed out to me at the Tilt meeting, 
who held himself particularly erect, and walked 
with a free and graceful step. My companion 
whispered that he was the eldest son of Lord 

S n, and I never guessed, of course, that 

there could be any mistake, till several minutes 
afterwards, when he appeared in the ring as a 
competitor, instead of a judge, and he turned out 



414 BLAIR-ATHOL. 

to be an innkeeper, celebrated for his prowess 
and activity. It must be difficult for men mak- 
ing so astonishing a display of agility and power, 
which they probably occupy years in acquiring, 
to remember always the admonition of Holy 
Scripture, not to " glory in their strength." 

Each performer successively carried the well- 
grown trunk of a larch tree, nearly twenty-feet 
long, quite erect in his hands, and after running 
a few steps, threw it violently forward with so 
strong an impetus, that the top struck the 
ground, and it wheeled completely over, describ- 
ing a half-circle in the air. As one competitor 
after another attempted this Herculean feat, a 
pause of intense interest took place, but the 
greatest success did not elicit a soupcon of ap- 
plause. If the audience had been composed of 
Madame Tassaud's wax- work figures, they could 
scarcely have remained more passive. Except 
a glance of surprise exchanged between those 
who stood nearest each other, no external symp- 
tom of approbation appeared ! It is so common- 
ly the case in Scotland, that orators, musicians, 
and other public performers, become discouraged 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 415 

and abashed by the solemn silence which follows 
their most brilliant efforts, that I mean to invent 
a machine, and take out a patent for it, which 
shall make a sound like the clapping of several 
hundred hands, whenever any single individual 
touches the spring, which will thus fill up the 
pauses of orators, while searching for an idea, 
and afford the encouragement necessary for 
carrying on every display of ability with proper 
spirit. The only speech I have heard of lately 
which excited sufficient enthusiasm, was that of 
a political candidate to a Radical mob, when he 
began by saying, " Gentlemen !" and not one of 
the audience having ever been thus addressed 
before, the burst of applause became so deafen- 
ing, that not another word of his speech was 
audible. 

Highland dancing displays incomparable exe- 
cution, and requires a rapidity of movement 
which the eye can scarcely follow. One of the 
performances would have amused you much, on 
account of the extreme precision and neatness 
which it required, being quite in the hair-breadth 
style. Two walking sticks are laid on the ground 



iie BLAIR-ATHOL. 

in a horizontal cross, within the four angles of 
which a dancer undertakes to perform with 
matchless rapidity a series of the most intricate 
steps, but the instant his foot accidentally touches 
one of the sticks, he is obliged to stop. For- 
merly two sharp swords supplied the place of 
those inoffensive poles, and they so effectually 
disabled a performer, after the slightest faux pas, 
from continuing to exhibit, that he might as well 
have executed his hornpipe among red-hot 
plough-shares. The dance gets quicker and 
quicker, the music more rapid, and the steps 
more intricate every instant, while the compe- 
titor passes with ceaseless activity over the pros- 
trate sticks, springing so lightly across, that his 
feet seem only pointing at the ground, without 
ever resting on it. All that feet can do, these 
Highlanders did, and more than I ever saw any 
feet attempt before, but we all looked on in so- 
lemn silence, as if witnessing an execution. 

Nothing ever looked more like insanity than 
the reels at last ! Four stout Highlanders, in 
full dress, raised on a wet slippery wooden plat- 
form, and dancing in the open air, under a tor- 



BLAIR- ATHOL. 417 

rent of rain, cracking their fingers to imitate 
castenets, shuffling, capering, cutting, whirling 
round, and uttering the sort of sudden yell, cus- 
tomary here, during a very animated dance, to 
encourage the piper. In tolerable weather this 
would have been all very enlivening, but I felt 
grieved for the beautiful tartans, which grew dim 
as we looked at them, and such joyous merri- 
ment, under a canopy of mist, rain, and east 
wind, seemed quite delirious. 

The wives, sisters, and daughters of the per- 
formers were all anxiously looking on from be- 
neath their cotton umbrellas with sensations of 
interest and excitement, such as the greatest 
gambler on a race- course might have envied, and 
my chief diversion arose from watching their 
eager countenances, while frequently, in a burst 
of uncontrollable excitement, they broke through 
the lines, and advanced within a few paces of the 
competitors. At one moment, when the rain 
poured down with peculiar vehemence, a crowd 
of dripping-wet clansmen, to save their gay tar- 
tans, put up a multitude of umbrellas, and cow- 
ered so near our carriage for shelter, that we 



418 BLAIR-ATHOL. 

saw nothing of the dancing. My teasing dilem- 
ma being observed by one of the judges who 
happened to pass, he obligingly resolved to be- 
friend me, and called out to the men in a tone 
of indignant astonishment, " Put down these 
umbrellas ! ! Who ever heard before of a High- 
lander WITH AN UMBRELLA ! ! ! " 

Down dropped every umbrella on the spot, 
and the poor men looked like convicted crimi- 
nals, quite humbled at the very idea of being 
considered effeminate, while I really sympathized 
in their mortification, aware that, to a Celt, no 
accusation could have been more unwelcome. 

As a learned philosopher once judiciously ob- 
served, " every thing that has a limit must come 
to an end;" and now having introduced you to 
the scenery, machinery, and decorations of the 
Highlands, while the whole dramatis personw are 
collected on the stage in a state of perfect hap- 
piness, I must remember that, under such cir- 
cumstances, it is customary for either a comedy 
or tragedy to conclude, after which the manager 
makes his final speech, filled with humility on 
account of his own deficiencies, and of gratitude 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 419 

for favours received. According, therefore,' to 
established prescription, I shall finish now, in the 
appropriate words of Shakespeare : 

Thus on your patience evermore attending, 
New joy wait on you ! Here our play has ending. 

Flourish of trumpets^ drums^ and hagpipes^ — 
enter a procession of Highlanders. They form 
a groupi and the curtain gradually drops, amidst 
thunders of applause. [Exeunt. 



FINIS. 



INDEX. 






Page 


Aberdeen, town of . . . 


315 


„ College at . . . 


316 


„ Hotel at . . . 


ib. 


„ Streets 


320 


„ Stony fields in shire of 


313 


Abergeldie Castle . . . . 


344 


Aboyne Castle . 


340 


Agricultural Meeting at Inverness 


162 


Altyre ..... 


188 


American Bisons 


402 


Amusements .... 


63 


Arctic Birds .... 


132 


Badge of Highland Clans 


311 


Balgownie, Bridge of . 


210 


Ballater, Inn of . 


340 


Balmorral .... 


346 


Balveny Castle .... 


. 323 


Banff, primitive customs at 


. 183 


Barrogill Castle .... 


66 


Berridale .... 


24 


Birds at Coppensha 


89 


Birth-place of Admirable Crichton 


359 


Bishop Skinner .... 


319 


Blair Athol .... 


408 


„ Tilt-meeting at 


409 


„ Highland dancing at 


415 



422 



INDEX. 



Blairgowrie 

Brodie Castle 

„ Portraits — Emilia Brodie 
„ „ Flora Macdonald 

„ „ Charles I. 

„ „ Boy laughing 

„ „ Jew's tooth-drawin 

Caithness, Ord of 

„ Farmers of 
„ Lord Caithness 

Castle Blair 

Castle Forbes 

Castle Fraser 

Castle Girnigo 

Castle of Cluny 

Castle Menzies 

Castle of Orkney 

Castle Sinclair 

Castle Stewart 

Castle Grant 

„ View from 

„ Portrait of Miss Colquhoun 

„ „ Sir Ludovic Grant 

The Sybil 
5, „ Thirty Clansmen 

Charity-Ball 

Chieftain's Stone 

Clan of Stewart 

Coffin of King Duncan 

Coral Islands 

Cradle Bridge 

Cradle of Ness 

Craigievar Castle 

Craiffhall 



INDEX. 



423 



Culleu House 


, , 


. 276 


» 


Bridge at 


, . 


. 280 


>} 


Sculpture over Avindows 


. 281 


» 


Portrait of James VI. 


. 276 


» 


M 


Lord Findlaters 


. 277 


5> 


J> 


Countess Findlater 


. 279 


Danish Princess , 


, , 


. 101 


Darnav 


'ay Castle 


, 


. 182 


>» 


Randolph's Hall at 


. 184 


>j 


Randolph's Table at . 


. 185 


» 


Portrait of Q,ueen Mary at 


. 186 


5> 


Heronry at 


. 187 


JJ 


Family Motto 


. 183 


Dunbeatli Castle 


, , 


25 


Dunnottar Castle 
Dornoc'' 


• 


. 321 
1 
3 


» 


11 • . 
Cathedral 




j> 


„ Monument in 


17 


Duchess-Countess of Sutherland 


5 


Dunrobin Castle . 


. « • 


13 


jj 


Portrait of D.-C. of Sutherland 


16 


>j 


j> 


Lady Glenorchy 


. ib. 


j> 


» 


Lady Janet Sinclai 


V . ib. 


J) 


j> 


Earl of Sutherland 


ib. 


5> 


j> 


Countess of Suther] 


and . 17 


JJ 


J) 


Duke of Richmond 


ib. 


Duff House 


. . • 


. 285 


>5 


Portrait of Lucy Waters 


. 289 


JJ 


j> 


Lady Carlisle 


. ib. 


JJ 


» 


Jane Shore 


ib. 


» 


» 


Lady Castlemain . 


ib. 


)J 


» 


Countess of Coventi 


y . ib. 


>J 


» 


Queen Mary 


ib. 


5> 


j> 


Duchess of Portsmo 


uth ib. 


>J 


jj 


Nell Gwyn 


ib. 



424 



INDEX. 



DufF House, Portraits at : 

„ „ Duchess of Richmond 

„ „ Chevalier St. George 

„ „ Colonel Gardiner 

„ „ George II. 

„ „ First Earl and Countess of Fife 

„ „ Admirable Crichton 

„ „ Constable of Boiirbon 

„ „ Mrs. Abingdon 

„ „ Madame de Montespan 

„ „ Duchess of Cleveland 

„ „ Duchess of Gordon 

Dunkeld Cathedral 

„ Marble Tablet in 

„ Statue of late Duke of Atholl in 

„ Monument to Marquis of Atholl in 

Dunkeld Palace . 

„ Miniature Model of 

„ Grounds of 

„ Glass Pavilion at 

Dunphail 

„ Cumming of 
„ Glen of 

Elchies 

Elgin Cathedral 

Episcopalian Clergyman 

Fair Isle, want of Gospel at 

Feroe Isles, Governor of 

Ferrytown 

„ Inn at 

„ Ferrymen at 

Fitful Head 

Flagstaff at Lerwick Castle 

Flood in Morayshire 

Fochabers 



Page 



INDEX. 



425 











Page 


Fort-Charlotte . 


. 128 


Forres 


, 






. 178 


Fyvie 


. 






. 295 


?j 


[nn at 






. 297 


j> 


Manse of 






. 300 


5> 


Churchyard at 






. 302 


Fyvie 


Castle 






. 305 


» 


Cross-barred Gate at 




. 306 


» 


Housekeeper at 




. 307 


j> 


Staircase at 




. 310 


;> 


Park at 






. 313 


Glammis Castle 






. 405 


Glenfiddich 






. 225 


Glenlivet 






ib. 


Golspi 


e 






11 


Gordonston 






. 226 


Gordon Castle 






. 242 




Park at 






. 248 




Deer at 






. 265 




Trees at 






. 260 




Old Tower at 




. 244 




Entrance Hall at 




. 245 




Charles Edward's Purse at 


. 257 




Portraits : First Earl of Hui 


itly . 246 




„ First Marquis of Huntly, 


and second ib. 




„ Countess of Huntly 


. 247 




„ Duchess of Gordon 


. 248 




„ Duke of Gordon 


. 250 




„ Lord Peterborough 


. 251 




„ Late Duke of Gordon 


. 252 




„ Duke of Perth 


. 253 




„ George IV. 


ib. 




„ Queen of James II. 


. 254 




„ Q,ueen Mary 


ib. 




„ lierodias 


. 


, 


. 256 



426 



INDEX. 



Gordon Castle — Portraits 
» >} St. 

Grantown 

Grey Stone at Forres 
Helmsdale 

„ Castle 
Highland Funerals 

„ Shepherds 
Infant Schools 
Invercauld 
Isle of Sanda 
James Mitchell 
Kirkwall Cathedral 
Kildrummy Castle 

„ Historical 

Killiecrankie 
King's Pass 
Largest Yew Tree 
Lady Watson 
Laird of Bonymoor 
Lerwick 

„ Small Canoes at 

„ Inn at 

„ Road in . 
Loch-na-gar 
Logie Rait 
Lord Dudley 
Lord George Murray 
Lord Norbury 
Lord Saltoun's Gardener 
Lude 

Lynn of Dee 
Macbeth's Cairn 
Mar Lodge 
Marquis of TuUibardine 



Charles I. 
Paul rebuking St. 



Peter 



account of 



INDEX. 



427 







Page 


Meeting of Tay and Lyon 


389 


Mermaid, Story of" . . . 


91 


Miniature Cottage 




141 


Monymusk Castle 




328 


„ Village of 




329 


„ Priory of 




ib. 


„ Inn, Parlour of 




lb. 


Morayshire 




. 197 


Mr. Phin 




36 


Moy House 




. 193 


Murthly . 




. 368 


Natural Forest 




. 347 


New Light-house 




100 


Nottingham House 




26 


Old Soldier 




214 


Philosophical Theory 




139 


Poets 




171 


Popish Chapel 




37 


Primitive Mill 




140 


Private Diary 




309 


Heluglas . 




200 


Roost of Sumburgh 




151 


Rowland Hill 




61 


Sanquhar House 




181 


Scrabster Castle . 




56 


Shetland 




72 


„ Consumption of Tea in 


103 


„ Wealth of . . . . 


75 


Shetlanders, appearance of . . . 


122 


„ employment of . . . 


123 


„ employment of children 


134 


„ mutual sympathy of 


104 


„ hospitality of . . . 


123 


„ town and country housce of 


126 


Shetland Ponies . 


. . . 


131 



428 INDEX. 






Page 


Spey Bridge .... 


. 239 


Steam Boat .... 


73 


„ Passengers on board of 


74 


Statistics of Scotland 


. 77 


Stirkoke .... 


39 


Sheridan .... 


. 264 


Taymoutli .... 


. 896 


„ Castle . . . 


. 398 


„ Fancy Dairy at 


. 400 


„ Red Deer at . 


ib. 


„ Family Motto 


. 397 


„ Baron's Hall at 


. 402 


„ Portrait of Earl of Holland 


ib. 


5, „ Earl of Warwick 


. 403 


„ „ First Lord Breadalbane 


404 


Teutonic Castle .... 


141 


Tifty's Annie .... 


303 


Thurso ..... 


46 


„ Strong Sea at . . . 


49 


„ Fishermen at . . . 


51 


„ New Church at . 


57 


„ late Incumbent at 


58 


„ Free choice of present' minister at 


59 


„ Castle .... 


4r 


„ Old Housekeeper at 


54 


Vale of Glenlyon . . . . 


389 


Village of Weem 


383 


Voyage to Caithness . . . . 


151 


Wick 


27 


„ Harbour at . . . . 


153 


Witches' Moor . . . . . 


170 



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